Delhi's Students' Federation of India's (SFI) call for protest at the Nirman Bhawan demanding concessional metro passes for students has resulted in police detention. In a statement issued by the left-leaning student group, it said, "After severely manhandling students, and unreasonably refusing them to continue, SFI was even refused to send a delegation to address their basic demand."
To recall, on November 4, SFI organised a storm on social media platform X, and on November 6, they staged a large-scale protest outside the Transport Ministry. As reported earlier, the concessional metro passes for the students have been a core issue of the students' election since 2019.
Speaking about police detention, SFI Delhi President Sooraj said, “Imagine how threatened the government is by students, as they are even preventing us from asking for a basic metro pass.” SFI Delhi Secretary Aishe Ghosh noted, “Today, hundreds of students had gathered here to share their concerns, but the authorities have shown us that they do not care.”
The campaign has submitted over 60,000+ signatures from students who have been demanding a concessional metro pass however, they were unheard of, claims SFI.
Pointing to the history of the campaign, Sneha, the SFI Candidate Secretary, Delhi University Students Union (DUSU), said, “In 2022, the DMRC (Delhi Metro Rail Corporation) had slotted our demands for the fare fixation committee, and the Delhi Transport Minister even met a delegation of SFI Delhi leadership in 2023. However, they still continued to ignore our demands, which were being echoed by thousands of students.”
