MNS wing protests university's fee hike

MNS wing protests university's fee hike

MUMBAI: Activists of the Maharashtra Navnirman Vidyarthi Sena (MNVS), the students' wing of the MNS, stormed Mumbai University's office at Fort
on Saturday afternoon and gheraoed registrar K Venkatramani to protest against a fee hike.

MNVS vice-president Sainath Durge, who heads the Mumbai University cell of the students' wing, said, "The varsity has increased the fees for courses, such as MCom, MA, MSc and PhD, by 50% to 300%. They claimed that they had hiked the amount as the government had implemented the Sixth Pay Commission.'' The MCom fees, which was Rs 3,000, has now been raised to Rs 11,000. A student said, "The hike came all of a sudden. The officials announced the rise of fees for 15 post-graduate courses, including MSc in computers and MCom. The fees of some of the courses have been hiked by as much as 300%.''

A discussion on the rise of fees was first held in February and subsequently, the final decision was taken on August 7. A circular on the hiked amounts was issued on October 6. "What surprised us is that the authorities are now collecting the arrears from students. We decided to take up their cause after many of them complained to us. We told the university officials that it was unfair to collect the fees after the academic year had already started,'' said Durge.

The MNVS activists sat outside Venkatramani's office for nearly three hours and left only after being assured that the varsity would look into the matter. The police were also called but no one was arrested.

"The vice-chancellor is currently not in town. She will be back on Monday, after which we will request her to look into the matter,'' said registrar K Venkataramani.

Through this move, the MNVS seems to have earned a brownie point over the Shiv Sena-sponsored Bharatiya Vidyarthi Sena, a political source said. The two students' wings are vying with each other to control the campus and this time around, the MNS wing took the lead.