Student starves for seven days to get authorities to take action against ILS College for collecting fees from backward caste students
Student starves for seven days to get authorities to take action against ILS College for collecting fees from backward caste studentsu00a0
Fed up of Gandhigiri tactics employed by a suspended student of the Indian Law Society's Law College, Siddharth Sharma, the social welfare department (SWD) was forced to take action.
Sharma, who was on a hunger strike outside the social welfare department, alleged the city colleges were charging fees from backward class students despite a government resolution (GR) asking them not to. He finally won the battle after starving himself for seven days.
Sharma has been waging a war against ILS Law College and other institutions that charge fees from backward class students. According to a government resolution issued in 2006, colleges were instructed not to charge any fees from backward class students, and those found violating the diktat, would be liable for criminal action to be taken against them.
Sharma, who was an ex-student of ILS Law College, had found out through an RTI enquiry that the college had charged fees under the head of activity ufffd which it allegedly was not allowed to ufffd after which he demanded a refund. Later Sharma was suspended from the college on disciplinary grounds.
"According to the GR, the social welfare department that issues the grants will be in a position to take action against the college. But despite repeated requests, they failed to do so. We also presented our case to the University of Pune and approached police but so far did not succeed in getting a police complaint lodged against the college," said Sharma.
However on Monday, divisional social welfare officer S B Bhandare sent a letter to the special district social welfare officer (a copy of which is with MiD DAY) and marked it to two police stations stating that a criminal police complaint should be lodged against the college for charging the fees. The letter also asks Sharma to withdraw his hunger strike with immediate effect as his demands were being met.
An officer of the social welfare department also told MiD DAY that simultaneously a proposal had also been sent to state government to refund the college for the fees given back to students. "The college is supposed to get these fees from the government and we have already sent a letter to the authorities concerned for the refund," he said.
The college on the one hand has told the department that it is ready to give the money to students once they are paid by the government, but protesting students like Sharma are demanding criminal action against the college, SWD officials said.
