Allahabad University agrees to hold talks with students over fee hike but with conditions

NEW DELHI: Allahabad University has decided to hold talks with the protesting students today with certain conditions. In view of the ongoing agitation against the fee hike, Allahabad University vice chancellor Sangita Srivastava has constituted a high-level committee of teachers and district administrative officers and invited the students to the North Hall for talks.

The university said that names of students who are not currently studying in the university were also in the list presented by the students for talks. However, after waiting for two hours, the members decided to resume talks on September 29 with a condition that the talks will not include former members of the student union, suspended students, students of other colleges or alumni.

The students have been protesting for over a month over the 400-times increase in fee hike, however, the Vice Chancellor Sangita Srivastava had recently said that the complaints are “misdirected”. Protesting students on Tuesday threatened to take "bhu samadhi" by burying themselves in a pit they dug at their protest site.

“The members of the high level committee called legitimate students to speak, but the names presented by the students included former student union president Richa Singh, who are currently not students of the university.”

फीस वृद्धि के सम्बन्ध में चल रहे आंदोलन में को ध्यान में रखते हुए माननीय कुलपति @UoA_Official द्वारा शिक्षकों एवं जिला प्रशासनिक अधिकारियों की एक उच्च स्तरीय समिति का गठन कर छात्रों को वार्ता के लिए नार्थ हॉल में आमंत्रित किया ।@dpradhanbjp @EduMinOfIndia @PMOIndia pic.twitter.com/0YRdH9ZKOK

— University of Allahabad (@UoA_Official) September 29, 2022

“The university is ready to listen to the problems of its legitimate students. But it becomes clear from the list that the chaos in the campus is being spread only by some selfish elements due to their vested interests and political ambition,” the university said in its official Twitter handle.