New Delhi: The Indian Institute of Technology in Delhi (IIT-D) saw protests on campus Monday as students opposed the hike in their hostel mess charges.
While classes continued, several professors allegedly allowed students to miss lectures in order to attend the protests, in which close to 400 participated.
Students ThePrint spoke to claimed that the mess charges, which are sought in advance, were “arbitrarily doubled from Rs 20,000 per semester (five months) in the year 2021 to Rs 38,500 this year”.
The charges were increased to Rs 25,000 per semester till June last year, and then hiked to Rs 38,500 per semester in December, they added.
Amid stiff opposition to the hike, IIT-Delhi in January decided to cap the mess charges at Rs 35,000 per semester, students claimed, but added that the charges are still exceeding the amount of Rs 7,000 every month. This way, they are being made “to pay the entire salary of the mess staff”, they alleged.
At a meeting held after Monday’s protest, the administration said a joint committee that would include student representatives would be formed to look into the matter. Later in the day, the institute released a statement that read: “This joint committee will work on finding ways towards reducing the mess fee. The committee will also do a comparative study of similar messes in other large metros.”
“It is important to note that messes in various hostels at IIT Delhi are run by students through their elected representatives, who also have transparent access to the mess accounts,” it further said.
The institute has also shifted the date to deposit the mess fee for the coming semester and arrears of the previous semester from 10 April to 30 April, according to an internal email seen by ThePrint.
ThePrint reached the IIT-Delhi administration with queries regarding the students’ allegations. A representative of the institute said “information will be shared as and when it comes”.
ThePrint also reached Dean (Student Affairs) Aditya Mittal, through calls to his office but received no response till the time of publishing this report. This report will be updated if and when a response is received.
Also Read: IIT-Delhi among top 50 world institutions for engineering in QS Rankings, DU has most ranked entries
Bone of contention
A key allegation made by the protesting students is that they are being made to pay the entire salary of the mess staff. About 45 per cent of the daily mess charge is non-consumable charge — that is staff salary and electricity — according to the break-up shared by students.
The body in charge of managing the hostel and mess facilities on campus is the Board of Hostel Management (BHM). “BHM is a constituent body of the Student Affairs Council (SAC), as recognised under Article III-A2 of the SAC Constitution. The Dean of Students is the head of the hostel organisation,” states the official website of IIT-Delhi.
According to documents seen by ThePrint, IIT-Delhi does not pay the mess workers’ salaries, which comes under the purview of the BHM.
Speaking to ThePrint, a PhD student not wanting to be named, said: “Previously, IIT-Delhi used to give subsidy on staff salary charges that students had to pay as part of mess fee. But what was previously a 90 per cent subsidy has now been reduced to zero. Why should students have to pay the entire staff salary?”
Paying the high mess charges is becoming particularly difficult for PhD scholars and students from poor backgrounds. “We should not be made to choose between food and education,” one scholar told The Print, adding: “Most of our stipend is spent in paying these charges, while the stipend is not increasing in parity with the hike in expenses.”
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
Also Read: Weeping in bathroom, torn poster, quota jibe—IIT Ambedkar study circles battle to be & belong