New Delhi, November 18: With the ongoing protest over the fee hike refusing to die in Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) for past two weeks, Vice Chancellor of JNU Mamidala Jagadesh Kumar on Sunday said the academic activities have greatly suffered in the past two weeks due to the protests and urged the students to end their strike.
“During the last two weeks, the academic activities in the university have suffered greatly because some students are on strike. I have been receiving several e-mails from students and their parents expressing their concern over the loss of academic activities,” Kumar was quoted as saying by a news agency.
The statement from the VC comes as agitating students plan to hold a march to the Parliament demanding complete roll-back of fee hike. They plan to hold the protest as the Winter Session of the Parliament began on Monday.
Massive loss of academic activities
Expressing concern over loss of academic activities in the varsity, the Vice Chancellor also urged the students to discontinue the strike and come back to academic work as soon as possible.
“Inter Hostel Administration (IHA) committee, Dean of Students and senior wardens are in a process with hostel presidents to listen to their concerns about the hostels. Recently, in the Executive Council, new hostel manual was also discussed and many of the students’ concerns were taken into consideration,” Kumar added.
Protest affects future of students
He said that the protests of the students will affect the future of thousands of students. “In fact, the charges students have to pay are only 50 per cent for the below poverty line (BPL) category students. There are many other concessions given in the new hostel manual,” he added.
The development comes as the administration earlier issued a circular urging the agitating students to join the academic work.
Section 144 around Parliament area
The students of the JNU, who have been protesting for over the past two weeks against the recently introduced hostel manual, and fee hike, on Monday planned to hold a protest march to Parliament demanding complete roll-back of fee hike. Looking at the alarming situation, section 144 has been imposed in the area around Parliament.
