Priyanka Gandhi urges Allahabad University to withdraw fee hike decision

NEW DELHI: In support of the protesting students, Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra demanded to immediately withdraw the Allahabad fee hike. Students have been protesting against the 400% fee hike in Allahabad University, which was approved by the AU executive council on August 31, 2022.

Priyanka Gandhi said, “The 400% fee hike in Allahabad University is another anti-youth move of the BJP government. Children from ordinary families of UP-Bihar come here to study. By increasing the fees, the government will take away a major source of education from these youth.”

“The government should immediately withdraw the decision of increasing the fees after listening to the students,” she urged the government.

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Recently the Allahabad University had said that the the reported meeting of two British High Commission officials with students protesting fee hike has “violated protocol”.

Several students under the banner of 'Chhatrasangh Sanyukt Sangharsh Samiti' have been protesting against fee hike in Allahabad University. The university has increased the under-graduate fees by almost 400 times.

इलाहाबाद विवि में 400% फीस वृद्धि भाजपा सरकार का एक और युवा विरोधी कदम है। यहां यूपी-बिहार के साधारण परिवारों के बच्चे पढ़ने आते हैं। फीस वृद्धि कर सरकार इन युवाओं से शिक्षा का एक बड़ा जरिया छीन लेगी।

सरकार को छात्र-छात्राओं की बात सुनकर फीस वृद्धि का फैसला तुरंत वापस लेना चाहिए pic.twitter.com/Z28494Oxw5

— Priyanka Gandhi Vadra (@priyankagandhi) September 12, 2022

They also demanded the university to reduce fees by 50% for the academic year 2022-23 and return the total academic fee made during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Justifying the fee hike, the Allahabad University vice chancellor Sangita Srivastava said “there is need for hiking the fee as it has not been done for several decades”, as per reports.