Army Law College protest: Stalemate continues despite meeting with chairman

The issues that the students are protesting against include strict code of conduct, arbitrary yearly fee hike, sub-standard food in hostels/canteen and lack of proper faculty

The demands of more than 300 students of Army Institute of Law in Sector 68 continue to remain unattended for the second consecutive day despite meeting the chairman of the institute on Thursday. The students said that the protest will continue till their demands are met.

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The students started an indefinite strike against the college authorities on Wednesday over alleged ‘arbitrary rules and administrative highhandedness’. The issues that the students are protesting against include strict code of conduct, arbitrary yearly fee hike, sub-standard food in hostels/canteen and lack of proper faculty. The students are staging the round-the-clock indefinite protest at the institute’s lawns. They have put up placards in support of their demands.

The students said that the meeting with the chairman of the institute, major general ML Aswal didn’t yield any results.

“The chairman had come to the institution today to discuss the demands but he didn’t pay any attention to them,” they said.

“During the meeting he only assured us verbally that the issue will be sorted out but he is not ready to give it in writing,” they said.

The six hour meeting was held with all the students of the campus and students also staged a 15-minute walkout from the meeting after they found that their demands were not being taken seriously.

The protesters said there was no elected student body in the college.

“The student body is not elected and is chosen by members of the faculty and administration. We want a democratically elected student body on the campus,” students said.

A student said that rules are too strict. “We are not allowed to move out of our hostels after 11pm, not even within the campus. It is like a jail,” he said.

“Even the food delivery executives are not allowed to reach us after 11 pm. We are being harassed daily,” he said.

“The minimum attendance requirement is 85% against the normal figure of 70%. Entering the mess in bathroom slippers and not wishing teachers can cost us a fine of ₹ 500 first time and ₹ 1,000 for repeating the offence,” said another student. “The warden of the girls’ hostel is too harsh. She comments on personal matters of the students and has made our life difficult,” a female student said.

“They increase the fee by ₹10,000 every year. There is no accountability in the institute. The faculty is not proper,” said the protesters.

“We told the authorities to introduce a system of mock lectures for new faculty members and then get feedback from the students.But, nothing has happened so far,” they said.

No official from the institution was available for the comments.