A day after the Panjab University, authorities, decided to maintain the status quo of the fee hike, more than 300 students joined in order to support the ongoing protest in front of the Vice-Chancellor’s office at the university premises on Monday.
Arun Kumar Grover, VC Panjab University, called an emergency meeting to address the issue on November 15, when the students went on protest for the first time. As per the earlier decision of the PU Syndicate, fee for regular academic courses was increased by 10 per cent and that of professional and self-financed courses was increased by 20 per cent. This was brought into effect from the 2013-’14 academic sessions.
Student for society, a student wing group which took the matter into consideration, and started the agitations said that a meeting was announced in which the authorities were to discuss the matter. However, PU authorities on November 17 announced that due to financial problems the decision of rolling back the hike is not feasible and the students continued their protest on Monday.
It was only after the intervention of the Dean Student Welfare on Monday, that the protesting students called off their agitation. Navdeep Goyal, DSW said, “We hope that the decision that authorities have taken regarding the fee hike will be forwarded to all the departments (official notice) as soon as possible so that the students may get aware about it. As the university is a welfare institution, we expect that the university will take all the decisions in the future keeping in mind the welfare of the students.”
On the other hand Arshdeep, President SFS said that, “They have assured that increased fee shall not be taken and particularly no late fee shall be taken till November 30. Secondly, there will not be a hike in fee till the ongoing examinations in any of the departments are over.”
As of now, PU has withheld the fee hike. Official spokesperson of Panjab University said that the matter regarding fee hike has been referred to the Fee Committee of the University. Fee Committee recommendations would be further forwarded to the PU Syndicate, which would take the appropriate decision on the issue. Now, PU has allowed the first year students to deposit the fees, as being charged prior to the hike. This decision was taken by a committee headed by Dean University Instructions Prof Madhu Raka on Monday. The Committee was constituted by the PU Vice Chancellor.