Indore: ‘DAVV tricking hostellers out of extra boarding fee’

Indore: Devi Ahilya Vishwavidyalaya (DAVV) teaching departments’ student union president Dakshita Garhwal on Monday accused the university administration of tricking hostellers out of additional hostel fee. “Hostellers are unhappy with the university as boarding fee has been increased mid-session. Adding to it, the university even played tricks and tactics to extract the additional fee from students after they denied paying it,” Dakshita told reporters.

She alleged that the university meticulously added boarding fee into other fees and tried to recover the same from students of Institute of Engineering and Technology (IET) hostels. “However, we caught the trick of the university,” Dakshita said. She along with other aggrieved hostellers met vice chancellor Dr Narendra Dhakad and citing that the hostels fee was increased from Rs 5,000 to Rs 5,500 per annum mid-session (in October), she said “No annual fee can be hiked mid-session. Terming the hike as “wrong and illegal”, the students demanded to revoke the order of fee increase.

Meanwhile, the VC claimed that the university had earlier in the beginning of academic session 2017-18 clarified the hostellers about the imminent fee hike and also, collected undertaking from them confirming they would pay the hiked fee. However, Dakshita refuted VC’s claim saying no boarder had given anything in writing of that sort and also, threatened to take to the streets if the hike was not shelved.

She alleged that the university hostels were of pathetic condition and hostellers were forced to stay in miserable conditions. “Until basic facilities like drinking water, proper drainage system and cleanliness are not provided in the hostels, boarders are not going to pay the hiked fee,” she said.
However, the VC stated that all the hostellers should pay the hiked fee or else they would be shown the doors.