Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad has commenced its campaign to expose the extortionary practices and anti-student orientation of the Delhi government. The campaign will focus on issues related to fee-hikes, forced extraction of increased fees and unmask the general apathy of the colleges and universities under the management of the Delhi government towards Delhi’s pandemic-stricken student-community. Students of varsities like the Delhi Technological University, Netaji Subhas Institute of Technology and Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University have seen steep fee hikes, some to the tune of 2 lakh rupees. Students are being given very tight submission deadlines and are being threatened with expulsions if they fail to adhere to the time limit. Non-tuition fees, corresponding to hostel, mess, utilities and miscellaneous charges are being demanded, even though, most of such facilities had fallen into disuse due to the pandemic induced prolonged closure of education institutes in the national capital. Even the coaching institutes are similarly making unreasonable demands on the students. However, the Delhi government has not taken any meaningful step to address the widespread grievances of the students.
Throughout the lockdown, ABVP had been consistently and repeatedly making representations to The Chief Minister of Delhi, Arvind Kejriwal about the unethical behaviour of education institutes under the tutelage of the Delhi government. Unfortunately, no corrective measures were undertaken by the Delhi government. ABVP has been calling for the deduction of non-tuition charges from the gross fees demanded, option of completing fee-payment in installments and the provision of data packs to students for seamless internet access.
Sidharth Yadav, State Secretary, ABVP Delhi, said, “Despite regular representations by the ABVP to the Delhi CM calling attention to the issue of fee-hikes and lack of any worthwhile concessions at Delhi government run higher education institutes, no visible steps have been taken to address the deep and pervasive grievances of Delhi’s student-community. As a consequence of the Delhi government’s apathy and insensitivity, ABVP has initiated an online campaign to foreground the demands of the students. If the Delhi government does not heed our plea about revoking fee-hikes and foregoing non-tuition charges, we will be forced to take to the streets. We want the Delhi Chief Minister to meet us and take material steps to solve the problems affecting Delhi’s student-community in the main.”
