JNU admin meets JNUSU presidential candidates

New Delhi, Dec 12 (IANS) The JNU administration on Thursday held a meeting with the presidential candidates who had contested the 2019 student elections, to discuss the proposed fees hike issue. The Vice-Chancellor of the varsity, Jagadesh Kumar Mamidala also appealed for calling off the strike in the interest of thousands of students.Out of the six candidates, the meeting was attended by five, as Manish Jangid did not come for the meet, while Raghavendra Mishra, Aishe Ghosh, Priyanka Bharti, Prashant Kumar and Jitendra Suna attended the meet.The meet was also attended by the Vice-Chancellor, three Rectors, Registrar and Associate Deans of Students."He (Vice-Chancellor) requested the student leaders to talk to their fellow students so that the normal academic activities including the conduct of examinations are resumed without any further delay," an official statement from the JNU administration read."The VC ended the meeting with an appeal to call off the strike in the interest of thousands of students," the statement added.A hostel draft manual, introduced by the varsity, has become a bone of contention between students and the varsity administration since October 28 when the administration didn't allow the JNUSU to attend the Inter-Hall Administration committee meeting that was to clear it.The varsity administration argued that the JNUSU had not been notified due to the flouting of election rules. The draft hostel manual proposed to hike hostel charges from Rs 10 for double occupancy to Rs 300 and Rs 600 for single occupancy from the earlier Rs 20.However, after student protests, the varsity administration announced a 50 per cent concession for the BPL category students, but it failed to pacify the students. The issue is being handled by the Ministry of Human Resource Development's high-powered committee which has given its recommendations to the varsity administration after several meetings with students and their representatives.
--IANS rag/rt/bg