IIT Kharagpur Comes a Step Down to Reduce Fee Burden for Students

After students at the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur staged a massive protest that included hunger strike and gheraoing the director inside the campus premises, the management had succumbed to the demands of the students and have proposed to reduce the fee hike.

The hike in registration fees for MTech and PhD scholars would be reduced by half following unprecedented protests at the institute for over a week.

Director Partha Pratim Chakrabarti and several officials were held in hostage for 17 hours by over 300 research scholars. The officials had ghearoed the administrative building on Tuesday and Wednesday.

IIT Kharagpur Comes a Step Down to Reduce Fee Burden for Students

The revision was recommended by a committee of three deans from students affairs, UG and PG who that met on Friday to discuss the hike in overhead charges.

They recommended a revision in both hall establishment charge and mess advance. Instead of a 84% hike in hall establishment charge from Rs 8,250 per semester to Rs 15,200, the panel suggested a hike to Rs 12,500. At the same time, it a reduction in mess advance from Rs 13,500 to Rs 12,000 was also proposed.

Earlier, there was news doing rounds that a 20 per cent hike in hostel fees at IIT Kharagpur even before the GST comes into place. Fearing financial burden, the students had resorted to strike. They said that they were going to gherao the authorities till the fee hike decision was withdrawn.

However, the authorities refused to speak to the media and have not taken any action on the issue so far. The main gates were made to close and the staff were forbidden from entering into the campus after that.

"At the time of the admission, we were not informed of any hostel fees hike. This sudden hike comes in the middle of the semester. The PhD scholars receive a small sum as stipend. From the stipend, the scholar has to send some amount at home and rest is given as hostel fees and food expenses. Without any increase in the stipend, it is difficult for the scholar to manage the hostel fees hike," said a student.