TISS strike: 1 faction calls off protest, other continues

In a statement, five members of the union said that they withdrew the strike as most of the core demands of the union were accepted by the administration.

A faction of Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) students’ union on Sunday called off their strike over cuts in scholarships, even as several students led by another faction continued their protest.

Core demands included dining hall and hostel fee waiver for SC and ST students. (HT FILE)

In a statement, five members of the union, including its president Archana Soreng, said that they withdrew the strike as most of the core demands of the union, including dining hall and hostel fee waiver for scheduled caste (SC) and scheduled tribe (ST) students from 2016-18 and 2017-19 batches, were accepted by the administration.

The statement adds that for the upcoming batches, a Joint Scholarship Committee is being formed, comprising representatives from the administration, students and faculty to work towards finding sustainable solutions for students’ scholarship woes.

However, another faction, led by general secretary Fahad Ahmed, and students’ councils at Guwhati, Tuljapur and Hyderabad TISS’ campuses vowed to continue the strike.

“The proposal read out by the administration partially fulfilled the first demand only. The administration rolled back the hostel and dining hall fee waiver for only M.A. students of 2016-18 and 2017-19. Whereas did not even address about MPhil and PhD students of these Batches. The administration’s proposal did not offer anything for 2018-20, the up-coming batch.

The students who withdrew their protest said that it was affecting the academic health of the campus and the on-going placements. ‘Students’ Union has the responsibility of safeguarding rights of the individual students who are not participating in the protests,” read their statement.

The other group defended their method of protest. “We must reiterate that the call for bandhs, blockades issued from the union have resulted from the severity of the issues at hand and theinsensitivity of the administration towards our concerns since a very long time now,” it said.