Following the first day of a hunger strike by MTech and PhD students at IIT-Bombay over the fee hike, the institute’s authority issued an official statement calling for a resolution, reported the Times Of India. According to the statement, the prestigious institute proposed to add four members of the elected student body to the fee committee as permanent delegates. It also announced that the hostel amenities fund would be deducted from the semester mess advance money.

As per the proposal, students with financial difficulties, including those whose stipends are delayed, may be eligible for fee waivers. IIT Bombay has even stated that it will consider scholarships for financially challenged master’s students. Moreover, students can pay for the semester mess advance in two installments to avoid a large financial burden at the beginning of the semester.

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“While tuition fees do not cover the overall costs, it is the expectation that hostel-related fees will at least be comparable to the hostel-related expenses incurred. These operational expenses are well above the hostel fees we were collecting earlier, and even with the increased fees, the operational expenses are still more than the fees collected. And this is not even counting the capital cost of construction of hostels,” reads the official release by the engineering Institute.

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However, students don’t seem to be satisfied with the resolution proposed by the Institute. They have responded with counterclaims. TOI quoted a protesting student as saying, “IIT-B students Against Fee Hike spoke to some students today (Sunday) who conveyed that they were given only two days to pay the fees of around Rs 97,000 to confirm their M-Tech offer. The administration has compared the stipend of the M-Tech students with the fees they have to pay. In fact, the stipend is not enough even to pay the fees as per the new fee structure.”

Students have further stated that they will not end their hunger strike until all of their demands have been met. The blow came after the college raised the fees for the M-Tech and Ph.D programmes by 35 to 45%, reported TOI.

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