HYDERABAD: Students of Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) in Hyderabad called off their hunger strike on Wednesday after the Acting Director of TISS, Prof Shalini Bharat, agreed to waive the tuition and hostel charges of SC, ST and OBC students who are already pursuing various courses on the campus.
However, the students continued to boycott classes even on Wednesday demanding continuation of the central government’s post-matric scholarship scheme in the other three TISS campuses in the country - Mumbai, Tuljapur and Guwahati — for students from reserved categories who are currently studying in those campuses and also for those who would take admissions in the future in all TISS campuses.
While the students of TISS Hyderabad started their strike a week ago along with their counterparts in three other campuses across the country on the issue of TISS rolling back financial aid through post-matric scholarships scheme of central government for students from reserved categories, the Hyderabad students had their own set of demands as well.
One such demand was waiving the tuition and hostel fees of students from OBC community who took admission in 2015-16 academic year and after that in Hyderabad campus, as they were not informed by TISS of its decision of rolling back financial aid for OBC students which it had taken in 2015. Apart from demand of waiving off the tuition fees and hostel charges for SC, ST and OBC students studying presently in TISS Hyderabad campus, the students had other demands like having an independent administrative unit for scholarship related matters, provision of first aid and doctor at the Roda Mistry College campus in Gachibowli, autonomous functioning of TISS Hyderabad campus and having a library at the RMC campus.
On Tuesday, six students of TISS Hyderabad started a hunger strike, allegedly after a letter by students of the campus to Registrar of TISS in Mumbai, was not acknowledged and was called ‘fake’.
By Tuesday evening, Prof Bharat arrived at the RMC campus and after protests, sloganeering and almost 14 hours of negotiations which lasted entire Tuesday night, the demands of Hyderabad students were accepted.