Chandigarh BJP president Sanjay Tandon Tuesday met members of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidhayarthi Parishad (ABVP) who are sitting on a hunger strike at the Panjab University(PU) and justified the fee hike decision by PU authorities. The students are seeking a roll back of the hike. Tandon, who is also a PU Senator, said, “A student studying in Class 10 is ready to pay a higher amount and when he moves to the university he suddenly doesn't want to pay. The university has kept provision of scholarships and other things for students below poverty line and those having income less then 2.5 lakh, 5 lakh which is fair. Those who can pay higher fees should pay." Further, the demand of ABVP members pushing for central status for the PU to solve the financial crisis was also received with a muted response. “The University has already formed a committee to look into the central status for PU and they will submit their report to the Vice Chancellor. PU does not fulfil requirement to become a Central University,” said Tandon. The ABVP delegation managed to convince Tandon to meet the MHRD officials on the financial crisis and central university issue on Wednesday. In the end Tandon also showed displeasure to the ABVP members for not informing him that party’s representatives were not allowed inside the meeting with the senators over fee hike.
