LSR College students to protest on Thursday, demand revocation of hostel policy

New Delhi: The students union of Lady Shri Ram (LSR) College has announced a protest outside the college premises on Thursday, demanding revocation of the hostel

New Delhi: The students union of Lady Shri Ram (LSR) College has announced a protest outside the college premises on Thursday, demanding revocation of the hostel policy that was introduced this year. Union members said it will be in continuation of the ongoing virtual protests by the students to demand justice for a 19-year-old undergraduate student who died by suicide in her hometown in Telangana on November 3, after facing difficulties in pursuing online education amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

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According to the parents of the student, she was stressed over being asked to vacate the college hostel.

The college administration had asked all second-year students to vacate the hostel by October-end, which was later extended to November 10. Starting this year, the college will only offer the hostel facility to first-year students.

The students union on Tuesday held a virtual general body meeting and decided to hold a protest on Thursday. “The students union demands revocation of hostel vacating notice and first-year hostel policy. We demand the distribution of tablets and data packs for online classes to all students in need and the college should only charge tuition fees from the students till the physical classes resume. A committee should be formed for solutions to issues and exclusion faced by socially and economically backward students,” the union said in a statement.

Unnimaya P, general secretary of the LSR students union, said the students continued the boycott of online classes for the second day on Tuesday, to condemn the incident. “Students of many departments at the college have boycotted the classes. Some had also attended online classes with placards and posters demanding justice for the deceased student. Around 300 students and alumni of the college attended the general body meeting on Tuesday. The protest will continue till our demands are met and on Thursday we will hold a physical protest outside the college,” she said.

College principal Suman Sharma said that the administration has not received any formal information about the protest from students. On being asked about the possible change in the hostel policy, Sharma said, “The hostel policies were changed to accommodate Other Backward Category and Economically Weaker Section category reservation. We can sit and discuss what can be done for students who require the facility. But we have very limited space to accommodate students from all three years. We will look into the other demands of the students. We are constantly in touch with the family of the deceased student.”

The parents of the dead student said that they had mortgaged their house and gold ornaments for Rs 2 lakh for her education and helped her fulfill her dreams of becoming an Indian Administrative Services officer and study in Delhi. The student was a recipient of the INSPIRE scholarship sponsored by the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India.

DST on Tuesday issued a statement, asking shortlisted candidates for the scholarship to complete their formalities quickly so that the scholarship can be disbursed at the earliest possible. “The DST is extremely grieved at the loss of life of a student of LSR College for Women, New Delhi and an aspirant of Scholarship for Higher Education (SHE) under ‘Innovation in Science Pursuit for Inspired Research (INSPIRE)’ scheme of DST. She was one of the brightest and promising students of the country. It is, for this reason, she was offered the Inspire SHE scholarship.”

“As in other years, the provisional fellowship letters of scholarship were sent out to 9762 eligible applicants in August this year. The students are asked to upload three simple documents like bank account details, mark-sheet, and a bonafide/performance certificate from the college, following which scholarship for the entire year is promptly released. Regretfully, these documents were not received from the concerned student. DST would like to appeal to all the shortlisted candidates to complete their formalities quickly so that the scholarship can be disbursed at the earliest possible. We especially urge all the institutions to cooperate in this important matter in a time-bound manner,” the statement read.