Students Stage Protest Against Fee Hike At B R Ambedkar Bihar University, Police Beat them Mercilessly

On Friday, several students got injured after the Bihar police baton charged lathis on the students protesting against the fee hike in the Bachelor of Education (BEd) course at the Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar Bihar University in Bihar's Muzaffarpur district.

The angry students had stormed the Vice-Chancellor's residence and the police lathi-charged to get the situation under control. Many students were injured in this incident.

The university has suddenly increased the fees for BEd courses from Rs. 95,000 to Rs. 1,50,000 and the students were demanding to meet the Vice Chancellor in this regard. However, the police did not allow the students to meet the VC and instead beat them mercilessly.

Students claimed that the university is pressurising them to submit the increased fee before the session starts. The university administration has put extra burden on the students by increasing the fee. and this sudden fee hike will severely affect the poor students who are hardly able to arrange money for their studies.

Speaking to Newsclick, Megha Rani, a BEd student of Shaheed Pramod B.Ed College, affiliated with the Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar Bihar University said, "It's an extra burden put on us by the university and we expect the issue to be resolved within one week."

Another BEd student, Ajay told Newsclickthat almost every student takes loan from bank on three percent interest, keeping in mind that they have to pay a fee of Rs.1 lakh. An increase of Rs.50,000 will only be an extra burden on the students and by not tolerating even a peaceful protest by the students, the university administration is behaving like a dictator.

Ajay further added that the sad part is that the fee hike is for those students who have been enrolled in 2016-17 and 2017-19 sessions.

Newsclick also tried to find out the Vice-Chancellor Amrendra Narayan Yadav’s version of the incident but he did not answer his phone.