The India against Reservation, a forum fighting for equality in association with the Youth for Equality, Odisha team staged a demonstration in front of the BJP office here on Thursday protesting the fee hike for general and OBC students in IITs
Notably, annual fee for undergraduate courses in the IITs is going to be increased from Rs 90,000 to Rs 2 lakh from the coming academic session.
“While the Union HRD Ministry has hiked the fee for students in the general and OBC student categories, it has decided to waive the annual fees in full for students from Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, those who are differently-abled or from economically weaker sections. This is caste-based discrimination, totally unfair and not acceptable,” said India against Reservation State general secretary Dinabandhu Sarangi.
The activists demanded immediate rollback of the fee hike for general and OBC students in IITs.
The youth activists further condemned Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s statement mentioning that caste-quota is a right. They appealed to the Prime Minister and the HRD Minister to abolish the quota system in education, selection, promotion and politics.
Activists Sambit Swarup Sahoo, Ashutosh Acharya, Srikant Pakal and Sashikanta Mohapatra took active part in the demonstration.