New Delhi: The Central University of Jammu (CUJ) on Monday decided to revoke bus fees imposed on students after a meeting with scholars residing in the university hostel.
The decision came after over 200 university students walked 25km from their hostel to the campus in protest against cancellation of buses which is their only mode of conveyance to the institute.
On Friday, the CUJ administration had cancelled bus services for hostel students after they staged a sit-in in front of the vice chancellor’s chamber demanding cancellation of bus fares of Rs 1,000 per month and higher hostel fees.
On Monday, CUJ registrar Ravikumar told News 18, “After holding discussions with students, it has been decided that scholars need not pay the fares till the end of this academic year.”
The current semester will come to an end in May this year.
Regarding the protests, Ravikumar said, “There are 1,400 students studying here and only about 100 were protesting. On Monday, the buses reached the hostel campus to bring the students to college, but they were reluctant and walked all the way.”
“The administration has been collecting Rs 1,000 as bus fare since July 2018,” the registrar added.
However, students had a different opinion on this.
“We started to walk around 9am, waited for the college buses but couldn’t find any. Hence, we walked towards the university campus,” said another student about Monday's protest.
The students have been involved in peace protests since the last six months against the increased hostel and bus fees.
However, the issue of hostel fees is yet to be resolved, according to many of them.
A student, who took part in the protest, said, “We protested against the bus fare hike and mess charges which are higher when compared to other central universities”.
He added, “We have got an assurance from the authorities on the bus fare issue. However, hostel fees are still high and we won't have an idea about it till the construction of the new hostel is over”.
The registrar said, “The hostel which is now functioning is not our own. It’s a private property, so we can’t lower the hostel fees all of a sudden”.
Earlier, the students had claimed the administration’s move to cancel the bus services was a systematic way of coercing them to call off the protest.
Taking cognizance of the matter, the International Human Rights Council had sent a written letter to the VC and sought his intervention.
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