Punjabi Varsity students protest over grants, increased fees
Ravneet
Tribune News Service
Patiala, August 11
Venting out their anger against Congress leaders in the region, students associated with various student organisations—under the banner ‘Sanjha vidyarthi morcha’—held a protest on Punjabi University campus, demanding a special grant for the University and rolling back of orders of increased fee on Wednesday here.
They installed flex boards at the university, and said that “they will not allow the Congress leaders entry to the campus”.
The students had, earlier, announced they will ‘gherao’ political leaders upon their entry on the campus.
Going with the same, the students carried out a protest on the campus carrying flex boards with pictures of various Congress party leaders. Activists associated with student organisations SFI, AISF, PSU, DSO and AIRSA held the protest.
Pictures of Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh, PCC Chief Navjot Singh Sidhu, MP Preneet Kaur, Finance minister Manpreet Singh, Higher Education minister Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa and Congress party leader Harinder Pal Singh (Harry Mann) have been pasted on the flex boards.
The students said the state government should provide a special grant to the University, while the University should roll back its decision of increment of fee for all courses.
They demanded that the decision of implementation of GST on educational services should also be rolled back.
A student activist, Vikram Singh Baghi, said: “We started a protest from the university library, went to the VC office after which the protest ended near the entry gates of the campus.”
The students said the state government should provide grants to the University rather than the University increasing the fee for every course to fill its coffers.
“The state government had announced a grant of Rs 90 crore to the University. The complete funds have not been provided yet”, they retorted.
