These demands include a rollback of the fee hike and provision to pay fee in instalments (File)Written by Ritish Pandit
Members of Panjab University’s (PU) Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) started a hunger strike at the Student Center (StuC) of PU pressing for 16 demands from the administration.
These demands include a rollback of the fee hike and provision to pay fee in instalments, filling up of vacant faculty posts, fellowship to all research scholars enrolled through the PhD entrance exam, dispensary and other basic facilities in South Campus, increase in the availability of e-rickshaws and shuttle buses, and a separate section for research scholars in central library among others.
Amit Punia, president of ABVP’s PU unit, and Shourya Mehra, secretary, released a joint statement in which they stated, “For a long time ABVP has been fighting for its 16 demands in students’ interest. Many departments of the university are running on guest faculty basis, the standard of education is declining due to the vacancy of regular teachers. If we talk about PU’s senate and syndicate then its anti-student decision to increase the fee from 5 to 7 per cent every year is forcing the economically weaker students to stay away from higher education.”
Earlier, ABVP also staged a protest outside vice chancellor’s office to press for these demands.
HPSU organises blood donation camp
Meanwhile, the Himachal Pradesh Student Union (HPSU) in collaboration with PGIMER, Chandigarh, organised the 20th Vikram Batra Memorial Blood Donation Camp at StuC of the university.
A total of 101 units of blood was collected in the camp.