Amid the conflict between students and administration of the Jawaharlal University Administration, the “high-level” committee set up by the university has suggested a partial roll back of the fees.
The Indian Express reported that the committee recommended a 50% reduction in service and utility charges for all students and a 75% reduction in these charges for Below Poverty Line (BPL) students.
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The registrar of the university said this in a circular issued on Monday. However, this is not a complete rollback of the fee hike as demanded by the protesting students and does not include fees for the hostel.
According to The Indian Express, this recommendation is likely to be implemented by January 2020 and had been approved by the “Executive Council through circulation”.
The report said that the University Grants Commissions agreed to release Rs 6.41 crore to JNU.
The university had said last week that it needed to hike its fees because it faced a huge deficit amounting to over Rs 45 crore because of electricity and water charges and salary of contractual staff.
The circular also asked the students to call off the strikes that saw several getting badly injured.
“Further continuation of lockdown of Schools would be unacceptable national loss. Therefore, the Administration appeals to the agitating students to end their strike with immediate effect in the academic interest of their fellow students. The university’s image has already taken a beating and normalcy in the university must return at the earliest,” The Hindu quoted the circular as saying.
The Human Resource Development ministry had on Friday appointed the three-member committee—including former UGC chairman V.S. Chauhan, AICTE chairman Anil Sahasrabudhe and UGC secretary Rajnish Jain—who met the protesting students on Friday.
(with PTI inputs)