Organisers of the ‘Occupy UGC’ movement on Monday said their protest is on even after Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Smriti Irani assured students that there is no move to scrap the existing fellowship
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The students claim the government is trying to restrict the ambit of non-NET fellowships for researchers.
“A closer look at the statement issued by the HRD reveals that the committee which will look into the enhancement and disbursement of scholarships will also consider economic and other criterion in disbursing scholarships to new students,” Sucheta De, one of the organisers of Occupy UGC, said.
She said around 700 students from Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi University, Jamia Millia Islamia and Ambedkar University in Delhi came back to the University Grants Commission (UGC) office demanding reinstatement of the fellowship for students taking admission in research programme from the next academic session.
Irani’s assertion came on Sunday evening after students protested outside the UGC office for four days against its decision to discontinue the non-National Eligibility Test fellowships given to MPhil and PhD students. She also appointed a review committee to look into the issue.
But a delegation of the students led by JNU Students’ Union president Kanhaiya Kumar after meeting UGC chairperson Ved Prakash on Monday said they are not expecting much from the committee.
“On the issue of economic criterion and merit criterion the chairperson was non committal and said the decision of the committee will be applicable to students who take admission in the next academic session,” the delegation said in a statement.
Suchita De called Irani’s move an attempt to “divert their anger against the government”. “We know the committees are a farce from our previous experience. The committee set up by the UGC to look into enhancement of non-NET scholarship recommended its scrapping, then why should we believe that the new committee will give favourable recommendations?” she said.