Agri students protest over delay in release of scholarships

Alleging apathy of the State government and university towards their legitimate demands, including the release of scholarship scores of students of the College of Agriculture in Dharwad, staged a protest on the University of Agricultural Sciences (UAS) premises on Friday.

The agitation was staged under the aegis of the Students’ Association of College of Agriculture, and the protesting students subsequently submitted a memorandum to authorities seeking immediate fulfilment of their demands.

Addressing the protestors, Sanat Totiger, president of the association, alleged that several students’ facilities had been discontinued owing to the bad financial condition of the university. Basic amenities were not available in the hostels, resulting in hardships to both male and female students, he alleged.

Mr. Totiger alleged that the university had failed to bear the travel and daily expenses of the students who had been selected for national-level athletics and yoga competitions. Scholarships for OBC and minority students had also not been released for the past two years, he said.

Mr. Totiger alleged that while students of SC/ST communities had continued to receive their scholarships, the students of other backward classes had been deprived of the facility despite repeated memoranda. Apart from this, the government had further increased its burden by reducing the amount of scholarship to OBC students to ₹15,000 from last year and increasing the college and hostel fees increased to ₹1.25 lakh, he said.

There was a shortage of staff at the college where 2,000 students were studying in 28 departments. Only 82 permanent faculty members were in the university, and of them, nearly 20 were set to retire in March. To make matters worse, no fresh recruitment had been carried out for years, he said, adding that they would be forced to intensify the agitation if there was no positive response.