Pondicherry University forms panel to redress grievances

PUDUCHERRY: Pondicherry University acceded to the pressure exerted by the students' council, which launched an indefinite strike from July 25 insisting the administration fulfil their various demands, and formed a committee to redress their grievances. The council called off the indefinite strike temporarily after vice-chancellor Gurmeet Singh formed the committee on Friday.
The committee comprises professors K Srinivas (philosophy), K V Devi Prasad (ecology and environmental sciences), K Rajan (history) and V Mariappan (banking technology), dean (students welfare) A Shahin Sultana and associate professor (management studies) S Riasudeen.The committee will also have representatives from the students' community, who will be nominated shortly.
Singh, who invited the students for interaction on Friday afternoon, faced a volley of questions on a series of issues faced by them. The students relented only after Singh gave an assurance that the administration will form a committee to review all their demands within a specific timeframe. Singh kept his word and formed the committee within a few minutes after the interaction.
The council has been demanding among other things resumption of free bus services for day scholars, revoking "unjustified" fee hike for all courses, extending 25% reservation for the students in the Union territory in all courses, improving hostel facilities and establishing a "student-friendly" academic ambience on the campus. The university, which was extending free bus services for day scholars for the past 34 years, decided to charge 8,000 per annum per student for the facility from the academic year 2019-20.
The university also hiked the fees for all its programmes including MCA, MSc, M Tech, MBA, PhD and five-year integrated programmes from the academic year 2019-20. However, it marginally revoked the hike of the fees for a few courses following strong protest from the students' council in July.