HPU SFI stages protest over students’ demands

Shimla, May 8

The Himachal Pradesh University (HPU) unit of the Students Federation of India (SFI) here today staged a sit-in protest inside the university campus regarding various students’ demands, including “irregularities” in post-graduate results and in admission to the PhD programme in the Department and Commerce and the lack of hostel facilities for the students.

During the protest, an SFI activist said that despite the number of students in the university being between 3,000 and 4,000, till date, the university had only been able to provide hostel facilities to about 1,500 students.

“Due to the lack of hostel facilities, many students have to live in rented rooms in the local area, the rent of which is so high that many students have to live together in one room and those rooms are not habitable. As a result, students have to face many difficulties,” he added.

He also said that recently in the Department of Commerce, the PhD seats of Scheduled Tribe students were converted into general seats and “admission was given to favourites”.

The SFI also alleged that the results of various exams were being tampered with through poor ERP system in which many students were being given similar marks and many were either failed or passed with similar marks.

The SFI also demanded the appointment of a permanent Vice-Chancellor for the university.