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Journalism of Courage
TWO GRADUATING students of Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, refused to accept their degrees during the 78th annual convocation held on Monday. The students said they were protesting against the institute’s new notification asking SC/ST and OBC (non-creamy) students to make an upfront payment of a part of the fees.
The institute has asked SC/ST students of the incoming 2018-2020 batch, who are eligible for the Government of India Post-Matric Scholarship (GoI-PMS), to pay Rs 12,500. It asked the OBC non-creamy layer students to pay around Rs 30,700 at the time of admission.
Apart from the upfront fee, the SC/ST/OBC non-creamy students will have to pay Rs 15,000 per semester in instalments. Students, who have continued their protest for over two months against the “improper implementation” of the GoI-PMS scheme, have opposed the notification and demanded the withdrawal of the same.
While the administration maintained that ony two students refused to accept their degrees, protesting students claimed that nine students did not accept their degrees. The students wore badges of solidarity Monday, the first day of the two-day convocation. “Nine students returned their degrees to the chairperson of the governing board, who was giving away the degrees,” said Fahad Ahmad, one of the protesting students. P K Shajahan, dean of student affairs, said: “Two students went up to the stage and said they didn’t want to accept their degrees. They were awarded degrees in absentia.”
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