Students registering for the forthcoming semester will not have to pay service or utility charges of their hostel fee “as of now” at the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), the Registrar said on December 30, 2020.
However, students will have to pay the increased room rent and additional ‘medical fee’.
Due to the exam boycott by the students, the varsity administration decided to postpone the date for completion of “academic requirements”. Besides this, the registration process for the next semester would begin tomorrow, i.e., on January 1, 2020.
The assistant registrar (IHA) said in a circular issued on Monday, “With reference to the approval of the Executive Council (EC)…the Revised Hostel Manual will be implemented from January 1, with deletion of Clause 2.6.1 (Norms Governing Hostel Life) and Clause 3.6.2 (Dining Hall).”
For all the candidates except BPL students, the new fee of the room will be Rs 3,600 per semester for all students. BPL students have to pay Rs 1,800 per semester. For a double-seater room, the fee is halved in both cases respectively. Moreover, students are exempted from paying a medical fee of Rs 500 per semester.
“Students shall submit copy of BPL certificate to the hostel office while claiming concession for BPL category. In case the students are unable to submit the BPL certificate, they may produce it later in a month’s time to claim the refund,” the circular stated, adding that BPL students “having JRF, SRF or any other equivalent scholarship/fellowship are not entitled for concession”.
Registrar Pramod Kumar said, “In a meeting of students with the MHRD, the latter had said the UGC would pay for the utility and service charges. Keeping that as the basis, we have decided not to charge it during registration.” When asked whether it could be imposed in the future, Kumar said, “That will depend on whether UGC pays or not.”
Kumar said registration for the winter semester will be conducted from January 1 to 5, 2020.
“We will hold a Council meeting and see how to respond to these circulars which have been put out even as our discussions are on,” said JNUSU VP Saket Moon.
