A day-long bandh was observed by a group of students in Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) on Wednesday demanding increase in merit-cum-means (MCM) scholarships, which was later in evening rejected by the university’s vice-chancellor.
A group of 500-600 students demonstrated on the university campus against the administration for giving the cold shoulder to their demand to increase MCM scholarships from `1,500 to `3,000.
According to Piyush Raj, joint secretary, JNUSU, “There was no classes today. The entire university was shut down. We had to call bandh because the university was not responding to our demand and today he (vice-chancellor) had rejected the demand to increase the MCM scholarship. We will decide on further plan of action after holding another meeting with the councillor.” He added that there was an increase of `500 in scholarship, which does not help much for the meritorious students whose parents’ income is less than `1 lakh per annum.
Mamta Tripathi, ABVP member, said they do not support the strike as it disturbs continuation of study process. But we do support their demand as it is difficult to survive with such a small amount these days. JNU PRO Poonam Khurdesia however maintained that everything was normal and some of the students attended the classes during the strike.