IIT Kgp students call off strike as fees get lowered

The Students of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur withdrew their hunger strike on Friday after the authority decided to lower the fee.

The committee constituted by three deans of the institution reviewed the demands made by the protesting students. Later, the authority, as per the recommendations made by deans, decreased the fee. The students now have to pay Rs 4,200 as the hostel fee, instead of Rs 7,550.

It should be recalled that a sudden hike in the fees in one of the most reputed educational institutions, IIT Kharagpur, had led to agitation among the students. Over 200 students of IIT Kharagpur decided to protest against the respective authorities after they received a notification regarding the fee hike.

While all the students were protesting since Monday afternoon in front of the Director’s office, eight of them decided to choose the tough way through and ended up going on a hunger strike.

The authorities hiked the fee from Rs 29,000 to Rs 37,000 for their upcoming spring semester which starts from January. Most of the student alleged that the registration fee has gone up suddenly from Rs 29,000 to Rs 37,000 directly which is a hike of around Rs 8,000.

The authorities termed the protest by the students as undemocratic. Therefore, the students earlier decided to initiate a protest rally from Technology Students Gymkhana, IIT Kharagpur and finally sat on a strike outside the Director’s office. On Friday evening, the protesting students decided to withdraw the strike and bring the normalcy, after a discussion with the deans.

However, the protesting students also said that they would go for strike again if, the institution suddenly hikes the fee again. “This is not the first time. There is a regular trend in IIT to hike the fees by Rs 2,000 to Rs 3000 in each semester. However, this time it has gone up by a whopping Rs 8,000 and we won’t keep quiet,” said a student.