Delhi to Guwahati: Students of Cotton University protest over fee hike in JNU

November 22: The fight against hike in fees by the JNU administration has caught a momentum as students of Cotton University, Guwahati on Friday expressed solidarity with their counterparts in Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), who are seeking a roll back of a recent hike in fees.

If the premier institution is suffering this nuisance then what’s next? Will it be us? It’s time to raise the voice against the oppressive element. Let’s get united and pose a bold voice against such unprecedented dominance. Long live the students’ power, said Rahul Bordoloi, the General Secretary of the union.

The Students’ Union of Cotton University further said, “Here, the question of where the taxpayer’s money is going can be sharpened: In 2017-18, the total expenditure on JNU was Rs 556 crore, seeing over 8,000 students through one academic year, over a 1,000 research articles published in reputed journals, 1,086 special lectures being open to the public, and 4,594 MPhil and PhD dissertations being submitted. Contrast this with the Rs 1,313 crore spent on mere publicity of the central government and its schemes. The imbalance in priorities is crystal clear.”

Meanwhile, the HRD Ministry three-member committee formed to recommend ways to restore normal functioning in, including former UGC Chairman V S Chauhan, AICTE chairman Anil Sahasrabudhe and UGC secretary Rajnish Jain visited JNU campus on Friday to meet the students union representatives.

The agitation over hiked hostel fee escalated on November 11 when thousands of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) students clashed with police, leaving HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal stranded for over six hours at the venue of the university’s convocation. A week later, students staged a march from the university campus to HRD Ministry but were stopped at multiple locations and finally outside the Safdarjung tomb.