Take back hostel manual, demand JNU students
Say protest to continue till demands of students are not met
New Delhi: The standoff between Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) administration and the students continued on Thursday, with latter demanding that the whole hostel manual be taken back. The students demand that a fresh manual be made with the student representation in attendance.
The students' union has announced that protest will continue till the demands of the students are not met. This comes a day after the administration rolled back the fees for Below Poverty Line (BPL) category and provided concessions in one time refundable mess fee by cutting it down to its original amount of Rs. 5500 from Rs. 12,000. However, the utility charges, however remain intact.
"Our movement for complete rollback of the fee hike, draft hostel manual and illegal IInter-Hall Administration (IHA) meeting of 28 October shall have to be continued against JNU administration and HRD Ministry," said a statement by JNU Students' Union (JNUSU).
The students union also said that the user fees, which is being proposed is as per actual consumption, the service charges will also include the salaries of workers which means "they are going to privatise the workers and hence this could mean a monumental hike."
"This gimmick is silent on the electricity and water bill issues. While there is no consideration of the other major demands of the movement concerning library timings, curfew timings and dress code, the proposed fee structure is also not acceptable," said a statement by the students' union.
Hundreds of students continued protesting outside the administration block, inside the campus. The students are demanding to meet Vice Chancellor Mamidala Jagadesh Kumar, who they allege has not met the students even once.
Meanwhile, a statue of Vivek Anand was vandalised with abusive language used against Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The act was however, condemned by the student union who said the culprit can't be a student. The wordings were later cleaned from where the statue stood.
On the other hand, a student who was at the protest said that even though rolling back of fees is a step towards success, it is not the ultimate goal. "There was no student representation when the manual was approved within 15 minutes. This shows the undemocratic working of the current administration," said Kumar, a student of Labour Studies, outside administration block.
No classes have been taking place since the past 21 days as students have been protesting against the new hostel manual. "Our teachers have been taking classes in campus' garden, they support our struggle and don't support the new hostel manual," said Arham, a student at the university.
