Arvind Kejriwal defuses ‘stir’ by rolling back IP University colleges' fee hike

NEW DELHI: The steady rising support for student protests against raise in fees in a Delhi government-run university has prompted CM Arvind Kejriwal to announce withdrawal of the hike on Sunday. The decision came on the day the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad led a protest march at Kejriwal’s residence.

“Learnt that fees of all IP University colleges has been hiked. Students agitated,” said Kejriwal, conceding the students’ anger.

“My dear students, please don’t worry. I have asked the education department to roll it back. Study well. Best wishes for your exams,” he sought to assure them. Several hundred students turned up on Sunday morning outside the chief minister’s house to protest hike in fees, which was announced last month, for all four and five year courses in the Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University.

Students complained that one aspect of the hike — they claimed it was to be applied retrospectively to even those who had paid previous years’ fees — was particularly irksome. A delegation of five students met officials from the CM’s team in his absence. “We told them that fees cannot be increased mid-session. We are not from rich families. They assured us that the decision had been stayed,” one of the five students from the delegation told ET.

According to ABVP’s organising secretary for the university, Vinay Kaushik, “the protest had been going on for at least 5 days.

Protests were held at the university and outside 35 colleges across Delhi. On Sunday, our protest had its right impact.”