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HRD panel to submit report on JNU fee hike this weekend
New Delhi
New Delhi
A committee appointed by the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development is set to submit its report on Jawaharlal Nehru University fee hike by Monday, after rounds of consultation with teachers and students.
The three-member committee, including former UGC chairman VS Chauhan, AICTE chairman Anil Sahasrabudhe and UGC secretary Rajnish Jain, held its last meeting on Friday with students’ representatives in the university’s administration block — where students have been protesting for weeks. During the consultation process, the committee also met deans and teachers’ representatives.
“We have finished the consultation process and there will be no more meetings. We will submit our report by the weekend. The students primarily said that deliberations around the new hostel manual happened very quickly and they wanted to be involved in the process,” said a panel member, requesting anonymity. The Prime Minister’s office and Home Minister’s office are also looking into the matter, officials said.
According to a government official, there is a possibility that the panel may give more concessions to students.
The committee on Friday asked students to come up with suggestions to look for alternative sources of funding, including approaching alumni. During the meeting, JNU students’ union (JNUSU) members reasserted their objection towards the “differential fee structure” proposed by the administration.
Following weeks of protests by students, the JNU administration had announced a 50% concession in hostel fee for students belonging to Below Poverty Line Category. All students who receive Junior Research Fellowship, Senior Research Fellowship or any other equivalent scholarships would not be eligible for these concessions. “Different fee structures will give rise to a new kind of discrimination and we are strictly against it,” said Satish Chandra Yadav, JNUSU general secretary.
On Friday, vice chancellor M Jagadesh Kumar — who did not meet the committee despite invitation — issued another notice to faculty members asking them to “sensitise students about the academic requirements and their commitments in fulfilling them in order to be eligible to continue to the next semester or to be awarded a degree.” Listing an array of criteria — including that of minimum CGPA, Kumar said that failure to maintain norms and requirements could result in the names of students being removed from JNU roll list.
STUDENTS CONTINUE STIR
On Saturday, students from JNU and other universities will be marching from Mandi House to Parliament demanding a complete rollback of fee hike.
The JNU unit of Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad also started an indefinite sit-in strike inside the campus on Friday demanding complete rollback of fee hike and rejection of MHRD-appointed committee.
Meanwhile, two JNU student councillors — Vishnu Prasad and Himadree Sonowal — member of National Students’ Union of India (NSUI), filed a complaint with the National Human Rights Commission against the “police-CRPF” violence during Monday’s protest march.
