New Delhi: Amid the ongoing protests of the students over fee hike, the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) has justified its decision of revising hostel fee by saying that it has a shortage of more than Rs 45 crore due to huge electricity and water charges and salary of contractual staff.
“The University has a deficit of more than Rs 45 crore because of huge electricity and water charges and salary of contractual staff,” the JNU on Thursday said in a statement. It also said that a ‘misinformation’ campaign is being run in the name of hostel fee hike.
“In reality, service charges are being levied, which have been zero so far. For sustainability of the university budget which has run into a huge deficit, it is necessary to levy the service charges in the hostel,” the university said.
“The UGC has given clear instructions to JNU that all shortfalls in the non-salary expenditures should be met by using the internal receipts generated by the University. Thus, there is no alternative for the IHA than to collect service charges from the students,” it said.
The revised hostel charges for each general student is approximately Rs 4,500 per month including Rs 2,300 is for food charges per month.
“The below poverty line (BPL) category students have to pay only 50 per cent of the remaining amount of Rs 2,200. Therefore, a BPL category student has to pay approximately Rs 3,400 per month,” it said.
The university had doubled the room rent from Rs 10 to Rs 300 per month, single room from Rs 20 to Rs 600 per month and increased one-time refundable mess security deposit from Rs 5,500 to Rs 12,000.
However, the fee was partially rolled back. Now, the room rent for single-seater rooms is Rs 600 per month. And for those students from the BPL category would be Rs 300.
