JNU urges UGC to increase merit-cum-means scholarship to Rs 5,000; hunger strike enters 15th day

NEW DELHI: As the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students Union’s (JNUSU) hunger strike enters 15th day, the JNU administration has written to the University Grants Commission (UGC) urging to increase the funds for merit-cum-means scholarships from Rs 2,000 to Rs 5,000 per month. It further informed the statutory body that the administration is meeting the expenditure for MCM scholarships from its internal receipts.

In a letter dated August 21, on the eleventh day of the JNU hunger strike, the university apprised UGC that “the expenditure involved is slightly less than Rs 4 crore approximately in a year (for MCM scholarships). The University has little scope to mobilise further internal receipts at this juncture, therefore considering the demands of the students we need your utmost support to share the increased financial requirement of approximately Rs 6 crores in a year.”

“We appeal to you to kindly consider the above request for an additional allocation of Rs.6 crores under the budget head "Recurring(Non-Salary) grant" to the University to meet up this demand of the students for increasing the MCM Scholarship amount,” the letter read.

Referring to the letter, the JNUSU members said “this is a partial victory of our hunger strike”.

Also read ‘JNU facing fund crunch’, JNUSU calls it ‘VC’s favourite line’; hunger strike enters 10th day

JNU: Why increase merit-cum-means scholarship?

The merit-cum-means scholarship was introduced to cover the cost of living in Jawaharlal Nehru University for students whose family income is less than Rs 2.5 lakh per annum.

“As the mess bill has increased considerably over the past few years, it has become difficult to pay the mess bill with an MCM of mere Rs 2,000. Thus, it is necessary that the MCM also increases so that students from economically disadvantaged sections are able to continue their studies in JNU,” the students union said in a statement.

“This letter by JNU admin to the UGC means that the JNU admin accepts our demand of increasing MCM in principle. We will fight further for an increase in funds from UGC so that it can be implemented at the earliest,” it added.

On August 23, the JNU students group took out a march to the ministry of education to press for their demands, including increase in scholarships and better infrastructure. However, police personnel with multiple layers of barricading were deployed, trying to stop the students from stepping out of the campus.