JNU hiked hostel fees by 41 per cent after Mamidala's appointment. Now, the plan was to hike by 162 per cent

After Mamidala Jagadesh Kumar's appointment as the Vice-Chancellor of Jawaharlal Nehru University, the annual hostel fees for the students was hiked by 41 per cent in 2018, according to a document compiled by a faculty member. The document also says that through the current proposal, the administration wants to hike the previously hiked fee by 85 per cent. This means that the proposal was to hike the fees before 2018 by 162 per cent. However, after the student strike and a partial rollback, the administration has apparently settled to hike the existing fees by 56 per cent and the old fees by 120 per cent.

Before Jagadesh Kumar's appointment as the VC, a JNU hosteller paid around Rs 26,100 per year. This included their mess charges, room rent and food bill. A meeting that was held on January 1, 2018 concluded with the decision to hike the charges by 41 per cent, which meant that the students had to pay Rs 37,900 per year. The current proposal was to hike the fees to around Rs 70,000 a year excluding utility charges. Also, the charges would increase by 10 per cent every year.

Now after a partial rollback in the hike proposed by a JNU 'high-level' committee, the students may have to pay around Rs 59,000 a year. The fees are subjected to a 10 per cent hike every year. "There is no rollback to the hike, as the administration says. This is actually an increase," says the faculty member who collated the document, he has previously served as a hostel warden and a provost. "This is all part of a larger plan to hike the fees massively," he adds.

Every year, the JNU hostellers also pay two months' mess charges as the mess security which is refundable.  Previously, the amount was Rs 2,700. It was hiked to Rs 5,500 in 2018. The latest proposal was to hike it to Rs 12,000. "What is the logic behind hiking it to Rs 12,000?" questions the faculty. "The JNU mess is completely run by the students. Contrary to popular belief, they aren't freeloaders. They source the food materials at a nominal cost," he says.