Occupy UGC: Students march to HRD ministry in protest

New Delhi:

On the 17th day of protest against discontinuation of non-NET fellowships (5 November, 2015), students marched to HRD ministry with a demand to dissolve the panel set for review of the grant.

Hundreds of students, along with students wings of AAP, CYSS, AISA and DUTA and student unions from DU and JNU marched to the ministry, where HRD minister Smriti Irani assured the students that the decision to scrap off the fellowship had been scrapped itself. But the students asked that if the decision to discontinue the fellowship was dissolved, why was the review committee still there and demanded to dissolve it.Former AAP and UGC member Yogendra Yadav also participated in the protest in support of the students.
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“We demand Non-Net Fellowship to be restored and to increase it from 5k and 8k to 8k and 12 k for MPhil and PhD students respectively. At the same time, students doing research in state universities should be provided fellowship too. One after another this BJP government is doing fund cuts in public sector educational institutions, be it CSIR or IITs for that matter. Students have decided we will not let this happen. We will not accept the logic of merit and economic criteria, we demand fellowship for all”, said Satya Prakash, one of the protestors.

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