The students of the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay (IIT-B) will go on an indefinite hunger strike against the fee hike from Saturday amid the administration’s efforts to negotiate by reducing the semester mess advance (SMA) fee.
On Friday, the dean of student affairs sent a notice to the students conveying the message about the administration’s decision to reduce the SMA fees. According to the notice, SMA fees for the postgraduate students are reduced to Rs 18,000 while for the undergraduate students it is Rs 15,000. It also says that the students can now pay the SMA in two installments.
However, their efforts didn’t go well among students. Even though they appreciate the efforts, the students are still sticking to their original decision about the hunger strike.
“We had pointed out the illogical double collection of the hostel amenities fund in the hostel fee as well as in the SMA during the open house conducted on July 26 and on many occasions,” said the note from the protesting students.
It further stated, “The present decision is merely a correction of the wrongful and unnecessary double collection decision. However, we welcome this corrective decision as the students will now effectively have to pay less money than the original hiked fees.”
Students are still upset that the institute has not considered their other demands of rolling back the fee hike. “Since our demand for the complete rollback of fee hike has not been accepted by the administration, we are now forced to go ahead with the hunger strike that has been planned from tomorrow (Saturday),” said a student.
According to the students, the hunger strike will begin at 11 am in front of the school of management building where on day 1, five students will be sitting on a hunger strike.
Points:
Previous fees
For Ph.D. Students
1st year – Raised to Rs. 26,450 from Rs. 16,500
2nd year – Raised to Rs. 23,950 from 16,500
MTech Students
Fee per semester – Raised from Rs. 19,000 to Rs. 26,450
Semester fees were slashed in 2020 and 2021 owing to pandemic
Salient features of students’ demand
Along with the demand of rolling back the fee, they have added two more which are revocation of board resolution recommending a 5% annual hike and also the inclusion of student representatives in the Standing Committee.
