New Delhi: The Jawaharlal Nehru University Students Union (JNUSU) Monday night shared a memorandum that it was supposed to submit to law makers in Parliament as an appeal from the varsity students.
“The students of JNU cannot survive with the present structure of fees that are sought to be pushed down their throat. We urge you to consider our plight and endorse our demands,” the JNUSU appealed in the memorandum.
The JNUSU had planned to submit the memorandum to parliamentarians, after a march to Parliament starting from the JNU campus on Monday morning. However the students were stopped midway by the Delhi Police, which, along with paramilitary forces, blocked their way.
In the memorandum, the students have demanded the Inter-Hall Administration (IHA) meeting be reconvened with JNUSU’s participation, a new hostel draft manual be prepared with consultation of students and for a roll back the entire fee hike.
“The reality of that rollback is that virtually no fee has come down. The monthly hostel and mess expenses of students are set to rise from Rs 2,700 per month on an average to Rs 5,500 a month,” the JNUSU contended in their memorandum.
“For the BPL students, the rise is from Rs 2,700 to somewhere around Rs 4,100. The definition of the BPL with an annual income of Rs 27,000 means that they absolutely cannot afford the fee hike,” it added.
The JNUSU also targeted the varsity’s administration for not conducting a proper dialogue with the students on the fee hike issue.
“The most shameful part of this whole episode is that the university administration is not coming to the table or dialogue with protesting students despite repeated calls and even the intervention of the Delhi Police to mediate,” it alleged.
