Delhi High Court on Friday while hearing a plea made by the JNU Students’ Union challenging the decision to amend the hostel manual that led to exorbitant hike in hostel fee and also introduction of service and utility charges has held that students may be allowed to register under old hostel manual which means there is now a respite from the unacceptable fee structure. This is a significant development not just because of the fact that a near four-month agitation that led to bloodshed at the campus has at last seen an endorsement of demands, but also because of the fact that the court while making the observation has also remarked that “Government cannot get out of education...and has to fund public education.” This is a victory for the student community no doubt and coincidentally has come the very next day students of Arunachal’s NIT earned an assurance on certain demands which are very legitimate. The nature of background that led to the agitation in both cases has a strange similarity. It is the striking apathy on the part of the government to disregard the demands of the students which are nothing extraordinary, but the minimum basic that is expected from government funded institutions. But, the noticeable unhealthy feature that is gradually and lamentably becoming the new normal is that students have to curtail their time from studies and engage in protracted agitations to ‘win’ the basic educational rights they are entitled and that include even knocking doors of the judiciary in hope of justice.
While it will be welcomed that Union Cabinet has approved the Revised Cost Estimates (RCE) of over Rs 4371 crore for establishment of permanent campuses of new NITs all over the country with the state’s NIT to receive Rs 868.36, the hardships that students here had to undergo all throughout these years is an ample proof that attention, although coming at last, has come late. And during this period, a considerable amount of time and energy has been lost due to factors which are almost unthinkable in any institution engaged in the serious duty of churning out engineers for the state and country. Theory classes in Yupia and practical classes in Jote with a solid distance of 40 km setting them apart is itself a sort of punishment keeping in view the limited means of communication available.
The most trusted vehicle riding on which the nation can march forward is education and paying less attention to it will only hamper overall progress. And the ultimate aim should be to build and maintain all infrastructure in that desirably acceptable conditions so that there are no room for complaints from the students.

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Kenter Joya Riba

(Managing Editor)
      She is a graduate in Science with post graduation in Sociology from University of Pune. She has been in the media industry for nearly a decade. Before turning to print business, she has been associated with radio and television.
Email: kenterjoyaz@easternsentinel.in / editoreasternsentinel@gmail.com
Phone: 0360-2212313

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