Hundreds of students of Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) clashed with the police and paramilitary forces as the later tried removing them from the campus where they were protesting against a 300 per cent hike in hostel fee.

Dress code and curfew timings were also among the issues apart from the hostel fee that the students were protesting against.

Advertisement

As more and more students joined the protests raising slogans with placards in their hands, calling Vice-Chancellor Mamidala Jagadesh Kumar a “thief”, extra forces were called in to manage the agitating crowd.

The agitating students also tried to march to the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), where Vice President Venkaiah Naidu was addressing the university’s convocation at an auditorium.

The students broke barricades and marched towards the auditorium, where they got engaged in a scuffle with the police deployed there. Some of the protesting students were detained.

In a bid to disperse the protesting students, the Delhi Police resorted to water cannons.

Police personnel were seen pushing back the protesters including girl students as the protests turned violent.

The students of JNU have been protesting against the fee hike for more than a week now. They have claimed that the panel, that takes a call on fee, raised the amount without any consultation with the students’ body.

Today is the birth anniversary of #MaulanaAbulKalamAzad our 1st Education minister. Today JNU students are on the streets braving lathis & water canons against fee-hike of hostel charges& regressive hostel manual. The fight for affordable & inclusuve higher education is going on. pic.twitter.com/F6kjyVelwQ

— banojyotsna (@banojyotsna) November 11, 2019

As per reports, rent for a single room has been hiked from Rs 10 to Rs 300; double room from Rs 20 to Rs 600 and the one-time refundable mess security deposit has been hiked from Rs 5,500 to Rs 12,000.

Meanwhile, Union Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal met student leaders earlier today and assured them that a solution to their issues will be found soon.

In a statement released before the protests, the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students Union said the “fee hike crushes the dream of equality irrespective of ability to afford”.

“The Fee Hike will affect an overwhelming number of students. It denies those from the deprived sections to avail education if they cannot pay,” the statement read.

The students’ union have said the strike would not end until the hostel manual is withdrawn.