Several students from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), Delhi University and Jamia Millia Islamia, under the banner of Akhil Bharatiya Vidharthi Parsihad (ABVP), were stopped by police at Parliament Street on Thursday. The students were protesting against JNU’s proposed hostel fee hike.
However, the scuffle between Delhi Police, Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) ensued after the protesting students climbed and jumped over the barricades mounted at Parliament Street resorting police to detain them.
Around 160 students including Delhi University Students Union (DUSU) President Akshit Dhaiya, and ABVP’s state Secretary Siddharth Yadav were detained by police on Parliament Street. According to Ashutosh Singh, a member of ABVP, the students began their protest march from Mandi House.
"They were marching towards the office of Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry in Shastri Bhawan but were stopped in midway," said Singh. The ABVP is demanding scrapping of the high-power committee set up by the HRD Ministry following the agitation by JNU students against hostel fee hike.
‘All we want is a complete rollback of fees hike. The temporary relief by administration is just a lollipop,’ said Rajiv Mittal, a protestor.
‘Besides, the rollback of hostel fee hike, we also want that some of the other issues pertaining to dress code, time restrictions on library hours must also be looked into," said Krishna, another protestor.
Gajender, a research scholar said, "We have raised objections to certain rules imposed by the administration in the hostel manual. Earlier we didn’t have to pay for electricity, water and sanitation but with this new rule, we will have to end up spending more money."
Students of the JNU have been protesting for the past several days demanding a complete rollback of a proposed hike in hostel fees, along with reconvening of the Inter-Hall Administration meeting that had passed the proposed fee hike on October 28.