Protest at Lady Irwin College over hostel fee hike

New Delhi: Students of Delhi University's Lady Irwin College on Tuesday held a protest outside their director's office over a hike in hostel fees.

Around 250 students staged the protest on the campus claiming that the hostel fee has been doubled from the earlier Rs 40,000 to Rs 80,000 for this session.

"The annual hostel fee was around Rs 40,000, but it has been increased to Rs 80,000 from this session without any relevant reason or prior information having been given to the students," alleged Priya Khandelwal, a student.

The protesting students were joined by Delhi University Students' Union (DUSU) leaders for their stir.

"The issue requires intervention by Delhi University authorities and a regulation needs to be formulated about the process as well as the permissible margin of fee hike," said DUSU President Mohit Nagar.

Phone calls and text messages to college director Dr Anoopa Sidhu for her comments on the issue went unanswered.

Students have charged that the hostel fee has been almost doubled even though there has been no upgrade of facilities.

Lady Irwin College hostel has two wings, one for undergraduate students and the other for the post-graduate and doctorate students.

The hostel, which offers accommodation to 200 students, is managed by a hostel committee constituted by the staff council of the college.

The students had also staged a protest last month on the same issue.

"We had prepared a memorandum of demands for the last protest, which the college administration, however, refused to accept. We will seek the VC's intervention now," said one of the protesting students.