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JNU teachers march to HRD ministry, demand answers on fee hike issue
New Delhi:
New Delhi:
Members of the Jawaharlal Nehru University Teachers’ Association (JNUTA) on Monday marched to the Ministry of Human Resource Development “to demand answers” related to the ongoing hostel fee hike crisis in the varsity.
The demands listed by the teachers included the release of the report of the MHRD-appointed committee constituted to look into the hostel fee hike issue, recommend follow-up action, withdraw the new hostel manual and ensure removal of the vice-chancellor.
“If the MHRD had accepted by constituting the three-member high power committee (HPC) that restoration of normalcy in JNU through a process of dialogue was necessary and that the JNU vice-chancellor was incapable of doing that on his own, why has the process not been carried to its logical conclusion despite its objective remaining unfulfilled?” the teachers’ association said in a statement.
JNUTA said the ministry refused to meet a delegation of teachers on Monday and it showed that the formation of the committee was a “diversionary tactic and not a serious effort to resolve the situation in JNU.”
Last week, JNUTA and the students’ union had sought an appointment with the HRD minister to resolve the hostel fee hike crisis, which has been going on for over a month now.
For the past four weeks, JNU students have been protesting against the new hostel manual, which recommended a substantial hostel fee hike.
Meanwhile, JNU students said they were being forced to vacate the administration block where they have been protesting for weeks now. “This has been going for a few days now. Guards come and try to use force to vacate the place. We occupy it again. We are now carrying out a signature campaign to ask the president, who is the visitor of JNU, to release the MHRD report,” said Saket Moon, JNUSU vice-president.
“The students have occupied the admin block for the past one month. The guards have simply requested them to move away. No one has been injured,” said a senior official from the JNU administration.
