Mumbai: IIT Bombay students are once again angered as the institute has decided to go against its own fee rollback. The Semester Mess Fees, which were reduced after previous student protests in August, have gone up by two thousand rupees.
As per the students, the option to pay the fee in two installments has also been taken away from them.
The undergraduate students are now paying twenty-two thousand five hundred rupees while the postgraduate students are paying twenty-seven thousand for eating at their hostel mess each semester.
The students remain befuddled by the decision as the IIT has issued no prior notices of this decision.
“This is not what was promised to us and taking away the option to pay in installments has been very regressive on the part of the institute. We can’t keep protesting over and over again for these things,” said a Ph.D. student residing within the IIT.
Confusion within the hostels has furthered since the option for students to opt-out of the mess has disappeared into thin air.
Mess fees which was previously collected by hall managers for each hostel have gone online this semester.
Students are unable to deny the option of eating at their hostel mess while paying online and we have been given no instructions about the same, said a hostel resident
“Apparently the hall managers and student representatives are as confused as we are. Students have not heard back anything from the administration so far,” she said.
As per officials from IIT, there was no rollback for the (SMA) mess fee last semester. Earlier the amenities amount per month was deducted from the Semester Mess Advance (SMA) by every hostel. This amount is now included in the Hostel Fee; hence the same (1500/- and 1800/-) was removed from the SMA in the last semester.
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