TISS protest: Students disappointed as HRD minister says ‘won’t intervene’

In March, the MHRD had directed the institute to form a committee and submit a recommendation on the strike.

Prakash Javadekar

A delegation from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) has expressed disappointment after Union Minister for Human Resource and Development (MHRD) Prakash Javadekar reportedly declined to intervene in their fight against the denial of fee waiver to the SC/ST/OBC students, who are eligible for Post-matric Scholarship.

“The HRD minister told us that he cannot do anything about it and the money has already been allocated to the institute. If the minister will not listen to us then who will,” said Fahad Ahmad, general secretary of TISS students’ union at a press conference in Delhi. The students, who have been protesting at the TISS campus for the past 45 days, met Javadekar on Friday.

In March, the MHRD had directed the institute to form a committee and submit a recommendation on the strike. Meanwhile, following complaint from Ahmad, the National Commission for Scheduled Tribe has fixed a hearing on April 12. The secretary of the Ministry of Tribal Affairs and the TISS Director has been called.

The commission stated that since 2015-2017 the fees of the institute has been increased by around 45 per cent. With OBC students not getting fee waiver, they said the percentage of OBC in TISS Mumbai has fallen to 18 per cent in 2016-17 as against 22 per cent in 2014-15.

“We demand that the University Grants Commission make provisions of sufficient funds and the scholarship is timely disbursed within the academic session,” said Ahmad.