HPNLU asks students to vacate campus with ‘immediate effect’; students worried about future

NEW DELHI, SEPTEMBER 19: The Himachal Pradesh National Law University (HPNLU) has asked the students to vacate the university campus with ‘immediate effect’, acting against students not calling-off their protest. The students are alleging that the authorities are not able to provide basic amenities and there is a lack of transparency and ambiguity in the fee structure of the institution.
The students of HPNLU went on protest on September 17, over alleged indifference and insensitivity shown by the authorities a day before the protest in an address by the Vice-Chancellor to the students. The students have alleged that the VC issued a statement in the address, “Aapko yeh toh dikhai de jata hai ki aapke father ka financial issue hai (you can see your father’s financial issue), inspite of the financial issue of your father, you took admission here, na lete, kisi traditional university mein chale jate beta (you shouldn’t have taken admission, in that case, you should’ve gone to a traditional university, children)”.
The students were also warned that HPNLU administration will shut down the university, in case they do not withdraw their protest. As per the allegations of students, the authorities have failed to redress their grievances of unavailability of basic amenities such as hygienic food, water, habitable hostel rooms, medical facilities and academic facilities like workshops, seminars and moot courts. The protest has entered its third day, as the authorities remain taciturn at their demands.
One of the students on condition of anonymity said, “his peaceful protest is in continuation to the one, which was launched six months before, and the same was brought to halt at the assurance of the Vice-Chancellor that all our issues would be redressed, but none of them had been disposed of. The students sat for their rights again.”
He also said that the lack of transparency in the administration’s functioning and the ambiguous fee structure of the institution have compelled them to hold such a protest.
According to students, the law university charges its students a hefty fee of 2.5 lakh rupees. Despite this, the facilities provided to the students are not of the same level, as a National Law University should provide. “Moot Court Competitions, Seminars, Sports and Cultural Fests have, so far, all been a bleak promise to the students. However, the University charges the students for the same under the head of ‘Other Facilities’,” said another student.
The students have decided that the protest will go on until their demands are met. Amidst the struggle, the students across batches stay together. The authorities have declared a seven-day holiday and instructed the boarders to vacate the hostel by September 20, 2019; else, strict action would be taken against them.
The students have stated that no matter what happens, they will not call the protest off until the authorities take action.
HPNLU Vice-Chancellor, Prof Nishtha Jaswal speaking to Careers360 on this issue said that we are trying to resolve the issue but the students are not ready to listen to us, with instruction from the Chancellor of the University we have decided to close down the university for few days.
When asked why the students have not been given adequate time to vacate their hostels, Prof Jaswal said, “The notice was issued on 18th, they have been asked to vacate the hostel by 20th. We have given them enough time to vacate the hostels.”
“We are worried about the reputation of the institution, the future of students and they are not ready to listen to anything. It's not that we have not met any of their demands, some demands have been fulfilled, some are in pipeline, some will be done in future. We have to also see that we shifted to our campus in this June and it has been raining since then and work gets affected because of weather,” she added.