A high-power committee constituted by the Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry will visit the JNU campus on Friday, 22 November, to meet the students and find a solution to the current issues concerning the university, officials said.
Earlier in the day, Jawaharlal Nehru University Students' Union (JNUSU) office-bearers met the committee members at Shastri Bhawan in New Delhi. The students have been agitating for over three weeks, demanding rollback of a recent hostel fee hike.
“The high-power committee of HRD Ministry met students from JNU on Wednesday and took stock of their views at a cordial meeting at Shastri Bhawan. They agreed to meet the students again on Friday at the JNU campus to find solutions to the current issue,” a senior official of the ministry said.
“The committee appealed to the students to restore normalcy on the campus immediately, to which the students responded positively,” he added, reported PTI.
The meeting commenced at around 10.30 am. The JNUSU office-bearers attended it along with the student councillors from the different schools of the university.
‘Current Manual Doesn’t Guarantee Reservation for SC, ST, PwD Students’
The JNUSU put forth the demand for a complete rollback of the hostel fee hike and said till the time the committee submitted its report, the fee hike must be put in abeyance.
“We demanded that the inter-hall administration committee meeting that was held on 28 October without the students' union be reconvened and the hostel manual be passed only after suggestions are taken from us,” said JNUSU secretary Satish Chandra Yadav.
“We also put forth the point about the vice chancellor not meeting us, which has brought the situation to this level,” he added.
The JNUSU issued a statement, saying, “Our demand is to arrive at a new manual through an acceptable deliberative process. The current manual disregards affirmative action and does not guarantee reservations to SC, ST and PwD students in hostel seats which we cannopt accept.”
The statement added, “The MHRD must ensure accountability of the JNU administration through the resignation of the Vice Chancellor or recommend constitution of a visitorial enquiry.”
The committee members also met the hostel presidents of JNU later in the day.
Meanwhile, visually challenged JNU students during the day protested outside the old police headquarters against the alleged lathicharge by the force on varsity students protesting against hostel fee hike.
A day ago, the panel members met JNU officials. While the JNUSU alleged that the registrar and the VC refused to meet the panel members, the university maintained that only the deans of all schools were called for the meeting.
(With inputs from PTI)
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