The students of IIT Bombay have much to cheer for. The weeks-long protests against the institute's decision to introduce a massive hike in the fees have made the administration concede to their demands.
A meeting of the Fee Committee was convened on August 11 and a list of proposals was presented to the Students Against Fee Hike group of IIT Bombay. After receiving feedback from the group, the committee proposed these changes:
1) A reduction in the fee hike that was introduced from this academic year. Apart from reducing the tuition fee for the MTech and PhD programmes by Rs 15,000 and Rs 1,250 respectively, the administration has also slashed hostel fee, academic fee and the one-time fee for new entrants.
2) The much-contested circular by IIT Bombay's Board of Governors that resulted in the fee hike, will now be reconsidered.
3) Another demand of the students that has been met is that student representatives will now be included on the Fee Committee as permanent invitees.
4) The deadline to pay the fee has been extended from August 19 to August 31 now.
The students, who had been on a relay hunger strike since August 5 have now called off the protests, given the administration fulfil its promises. One of the conditions stated by the students is that the Board of Governors should convene and reconsider the circular for fee hike before August 19.
In a statement, the students said, "We hope that this committed struggle by the students will send a message to everybody that the student community of this institute has the resolve to stand for values like democracy, equality and justice for all. We will be declaring the third phase for our long-term goals in due course."
