GUWAHATI, AUG 25: Members of the Dibrugarh University Post Graduate Students’ Union (DUPGSU) staged a hunger strike in the unversity premises on Thursday in protest against the Dibrugarh University’s decision to hike the fees of its courses for the academic session 2022-23.
Dibrugarh University in a notification on August 23 had announced a hike in the annual fees for its Arts, Science and Commerce streams. It hiked the annual fees for Arts and Commerce stream from Rs 4,489 to Rs 5982 and Science stream from Rs 6,913 to Rs 9,194 for the academic session 2022-23 triggering strong protests from the Dibrugarh university students community.
Bikash Misong, president of the Dibrugarh University Post Graduate Students’ Union said, “We have been on protest since the last 3 days and it will continue until the Dibrugarh University authorities reverses its decision of fees hike. Dibrugarh University receives enough funds from the UGC and government to function smoothly. The government is talking about free education and Dibrugarh University is resorting to fees hike which is a pure anti-student policy.”
On Wednesday Dibrugarh University vice chancellor Jiten Hazarika in a press meet justified the decision of fees hike citing rising costs and inflation while adding that the same will be utilised for infrastructure development and research works of the university. He also asserted that there will be no rollback of the fees hike. After coming out of the press meet the vice chancellor was gheraoed by the protesting students followed by a heated exchange.