JNUSU, MHRD meetings end, ball in varsity admin's court

A series of meetings between the High Power Committee of the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) and the students' representatives of Jawaharlal Nehru University ended on Friday evening. The committee will now table its recommendations before the JNU administration which will take a call on the students' demands.

Speaking to the media after the meetings, Aishe Ghosh, President of JNU Students' Union (JNUSU), said, "We made it clear that there is no mid-way solution to the issue. Our protest will stop only after the administration comes up with a complete rollback of hostel fee hike and reconvene the IHA meeting."

The MHRD committee, which was headed by V.C Chauhan, former chief of University Grants Commission (UGC), was appointed to initiate a dialogue with the protesting students of JNU, who had accused the administration of running away from dialogue over the hostel fee hike on propose.

UGC Secretary Rajnish Jain and NICTE member Anil Sahasrabudhe were also part of the High Power Committee.

"There will be no more meeting with the students. We have understood their concerns and will keep them in mind while putting our recommendations," Rajnish Jain said.

He added that the JNU administration will take a final call on the issue.

Earlier on Friday, JNU students formed a human chain inside the campus to demand complete rollback of hostel fee hike ahead of the visit of the MHRD committee, forcing the panel members to enter the campus through another gate.

The first meeting of the panel with JNUSU office-bearers, student counsellors and hostel presidents took place on Wednesday.

The committee was constituted after several attempts to pacify the agitating students had failed. During one such protest, HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal 'Nishank' and JNU Vice-Chancellor Jagadesh Kumar were confined to the campus for nearly five hours.

While the JNU administration had announced a 50 per cent concession for those belonging to the BPL category, the students rejected the proposal, terming it as an eye wash, and demanded complete rollback of the proposed hostel fee hike.

( With inputs from IANS )