University of Hyderabad students oppose quarantine charges

Hyderabad: The University of Hyderabad (UoH) Students' Union has condemned the move by the authorities to levy Covid-19 quarantine charges on students. On Thursday, it urged Vice-Chancellor P Appa Rao to immediately drop the charges and provide proper quarantine facilities, with subsistence, either in hostels or at guest houses free of charge.

Union president Abhishek Nandan said the authorities were levying Rs 500 as daily quarantine charges. In a letter to the VC, he said in the current unprecedented conditions it is not possible for students to pay so much for their quarantine.

Nandan pointed out that the students who were quarantined were not even provided food and other facilities.

Terming the collection of charges as 'unjust', the union urged students to oppose such moves by the administration and to refuse to pay such unjust charges. It also called for a social media protest to press for its demands ahead of the meeting of the Academic Council on December 22.

The union's representatives have met the Deans of School of Humanities and School of Social Sciences and HoDs in both the schools with the representation containing demands to be discussed in the AC meeting. The union is also demanding steps to fill all the vacant MPhil/PhD seats, fill all the vacant masters seats by operating waiting seats, scrap 50 per cent and 45 per cent minimum eligibility criteria for MPhil/PhD interview and extension to all MPhil/PhD scholars.

It claimed that the UGC regulation 2016 to implement minimum qualifying criteria in MPhil/PhD entrances resulted in large number of research seats in the university remaining vacant. The implementation of such a 'draconian' regulation amid the pandemic is insensitive and discriminatory.

The other demands of the union include resolving online classes issues, implementation of Covid-19 prevention protocol, better healthcare facilities, phase-wise reopening of campus for all disciplines, relaxation of tuition/lab/development fee, zero backlog issue and optometry internship issue.