18 TISS students fined 1,000 each for trespassing
Committee says they disrupted administrative work in March; students say protest was legitimate.
The Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai, has imposed a fine of Rs 1,000 each on 18 students for forcibly entering the registrar’s office and disrupting administrative work during a protest on March 23- 24 against the institute’s decision to withdraw financial aid to SC/ST students eligible for the Government of India Post-Matric Scholarship Scheme. According to a memorandum issued on Thursday, the institute has found 22 students guilty of trespassing and breach of peace. The memorandum – of which Mirror has a copy – is based on the findings of an independent committee set up in August to look into the students’ roles in ‘violating rules’ of the institute. Of the 22 found guilty, charges against 18 have been found to be ‘serious and even criminal in nature’. The fines collected from the students will go towards Students’ Aid Fund. The rest of the students have been let off with a warning. A massive student protest had rocked all the four TISS campuses – Mumbai, Tuljapur (in Maharashtra), Guwahati and Hyderabad – in February after the institute decided to withdraw financial aid to existing and future SC and ST students eligible for government scholarship. The institute continued to waive the tuition fee but eligible students had to pay the hostel and dining hall charges upfront. Earlier these costs were borne by the institute. However, the institute claimed that there was no reimbursement from the Centre and it was turning out to be a financial burden. With the new policy kicking in, students had to bear the hostel and dining hall costs and later apply to the central government for refund under the Post-Matric Scholarship scheme. The students’ union had demanded that the 2016-18 and 2017-19 batch be exempt from this decision. They had demanded a dialogue with the institute but when the negotiations with the TISS management had failed, they had called for a massive bandh in March. The protesting students had blocked the administrative building, stalled work and boycotted classes. On May 12, the institute had issued show cause notices to 27 students for ‘forcefully trespassing and occupying the office of the registrar’. They were asked to tender an explanation against the show cause notice. In August, an independent committee was set up to look into their role in disrupting the academic decorum of the institute. The committee had found 22 of these students guilty, said sources in the institute. While the institute officials were unavailable for comment, students told this newspaper that the fine was unfair and that the institute was targeting protesting students. “This is hypocrisy on part of the institute. We have been fighting to mobilise aid for students from marginalised communities and now the institute has pitted students against each other,” said Fahad Ahmad, former general secretary of the student union. He, too, has been fined by the institute.
Source: Mumbai Mirror, 30/11/2018
