JNU students to take rally to Parliament to protest against hostel fee hike today; demonstrators likely to appeal to MPs to take up cause

New Delhi: The Jawaharlal Nehru Students’ Union (JNUSU) will take out a march to Parliament on Monday to protest against the hostel fee hike. The JNUSU said it will be a march to save public education and appeal to MPs to take up the cause. The Winter Session of Parliament will begin on 18 November and end on 13 December. Students are protesting inside the administration block of the university against the increase in hostel fee, even though JNU announced a rollback in the hike on Wednesday evening. The students have dubbed the partial rollback as an “eyewash”. _**Click here to follow LIVE updates on Parliament**_ JNU Vice-chancellor M Jagadesh Kumar urged the protesting students on Sunday to return to their classes as exams are near. In a video message released on the varsity’s website, he said he has been getting e-mails from worried parents and students about the situation in the university which is affecting academic activities.

Delhi: Security deployed outside Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU); Jawaharlal Nehru University Students' Union to march to Parliament today demanding complete roll back of fee hike pic.twitter.com/n9ESBZ5HtZ

— ANI (@ANI) November 18, 2019

“If we still continue with the strike and cause academic loss, it is going to affect future of thousands of students. “From tomorrow, a new week will begin and I request the students to come back to the classes and resume your research activities. From December 12, the semester exams will start and if you do not attend classes, it will affect your future goals,” Kumar said. On Sunday, a section of teachers also held a press conference and claimed that a handful of students have terrorised other pupils and are not allowing them to attend classes. “There are 8,000 students in the university and at least 6,000 of them want to attend classes. But 200 or so students are not allowing them and have created an atmosphere of terror,” said one of the professors at the press conference. University registrar Pramod Kumar also appealed to students to get back to classes. “Due to the ongoing strike by a group of students, thousands of students who wish to participate in the JNU academic programmes and plan to complete their academic requirements for continuance in the university, are adversely affected,” he said in a circular. “It is in the interest of the students to adhere to the academic norms and academic calendar of the university according to which they need to appear in the end-semester examination that commences from 12 December,” he said. The last date for submission of MPhil dissertation and PhD thesis in the schools and forwarding the same to the evaluation branch is 31 December for the monsoon semester. “Since the academic calendar has been approved by the Academic Council and the Executive Council, there is going to be no relaxation in the above deadlines,” the registrar said. If the academic requirements are not met in time, thousands of students may be affected, he added.