JNU Protest 2020: Fearing students’ disruption, JNU provides online facility for hostel fee submission

In the ensuing students’ agitation since October 28, the registration for new semester is reportedly the only process which is not online in JNU.

HIGHLIGHT

• Students boycotted class rooms, JNU exempted minimum attendance requirement.
• Students boycotted exams and locked premises, JNU made it fully online.
• Question papers were emailed and students were asked to submit pictures of answer sheets on WhatsApp to professors.
• Students protested inside Administrative Block, JNU ensured permanent deployment of police.
• Students locked cashiers' offices, JNU launched online fee submission facility.

The checkmates between Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) administration and students' union (JNUSU) is continue even in the new year. As the university initiated the process to implement the revised hostel fee from the new semester, protesting students announced to lockdown the offices of cashiers and mess managers. The university administration came with an alternative arrangement for online submission of the hostel fee.

"This is to inform the students residing in various hostels that they do not require to visit their respective hostel offices for knowing their hostel dues. The hostel dues can be checked on the IHA (Inter Hall Administration) website. After making the required online fee payment and generating the receipt, students need to send a scanned copy of the receipt to a unique email id of their respective hostels given on the IHA website," said a circular of the University issued on 01 January, 2019. "The concerned officer of IHA will check the receipt and provide the online clearance to the students, who have paid the required hostel dues. After completing the process, the students can visit their respective schools for fulfilling other requirements of the registration process," it added. The registration process for the new semester is open till January 5.

Interestingly, in its reluctance to prove superiority, the university administration has made almost everything online but the registration process. The last semester witnessed several firsts in the history of JNU – students were provided questions papers on their email ids, asked to complete answers from wherever and whenever they were comfortable with, sending the photos of answer sheets to professors on WhatsApp up and permanent deployment of the police in the campus to protect Administrative Block which houses the offices of the Vice Chancellor and the Registrar. The reason – ongoing students' agitation against hostel fee hike since October 28.

As most of the students boycotted the semester examination in December, 2019, the university administration has decided to give all of them 'provisional admission' in new semester with a condition that they would complete the academic requirements by January 20, 2020. In a circular on December 30, 2019, the university has asked the students to submit the hostel fee of Rs 600 per student per month for a single room and Rs 300 per student per month for double seated rooms. The BPL category students have been provided 50 percent concession. As the University Grants Commission (UGC) has decided to bear the amount of 'utility and service charges', this new category of hostel fee has not been implemented in the new semester.

JNUSU has rejected the offer and demanded complete withdrawal of the fee hike. The students' union has also alleged that the Vice Chancellor is following highly authoritative approach and seems to have no intention to solve the issue through dialogue. Though started as protest against hostel fee hike, the agitation of JNUSU took the form of a national protest against commercialization of education as more and more students' unions joined the cause.

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