The board of governors of IIEST, Shibpur, in a meeting on August 25 approved a proposal to reduce mess establishment fees and overhead charges by over 25 per cent each.
The students’ senate had, about a fortnight ago, written to the institute’s director, Parthasarathi Chakrabarti, asking why the authorities had not approved their proposal to reduce the fees. The students' senate had put forward initiated the relief proposal in May because of the financial toll the Covid pandemic has taken on their families.
The proposal was passed by the senate, which represents all students of the Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology, Shibpur, and forwarded to the director in June for approval.
“It has been decided that starting from August 9, 2021 (when the new semester started) till March 31, 2022, the students will receive the waiver on two fee components in view of the financial constraints amid the Covid pandemic. The situation is turning grave each passing day, prompting a call for waiver. The situation will be reviewed later,” said a board member.
The mess fees during the period will be reduced from Rs 5,000 to Rs 2,900 for fourth-year students and from Rs 6,200 to Rs 4,100 for third-year students.
Since the last board meeting was adjourned, the resolution on the fee reduction will be confirmed at the next board meeting on September 1.
“The confirmation is a mere formality. Then, the new fee structure will be announced,” the member said.
Repeated calls and text messages to director Chakrabarti went unanswered.
When The Telegraph had on July 3 reported on the fee reduction proposal, he said: “We want to give students relief on fees. The proposal on reduction has been sent to the institute’s board of governors for approval.”
Harshvardhan Singh, the general secretary of the senate, said they had proposed the reduction because of crippling financial conditions.
There are increasing reports of financial distress in the families of students because of loss of income over the past one-and-a-half years, he said.
“The students are also bearing the cost of data packs for attending classes, writing exams and attending placement interviews on digital platforms. We don’t know whether the students will be recalled (to the campus). Amid the trying circumstances, we had little choice but to seek the fee waiver,” Singh said. “Everybody is trying to save whatever is possible.”
Financial constraints had forced some students at IIEST Shibpur to request the authorities to waive their tuition fees last September.
The annual tuition fee is Rs 1,25,000.
In June, the IIEST, Shibpur alumni paid the annual tuition fees of nine students who could not clear their dues because of financial difficulties, following an appeal from the institute.
In May, the institute had said it would recharge the data packs of about 400 students who had received full waiver and half waiver on tuition fees on the basis of their annual family income.
The senate wrote to the director in mid-August: “…there are several other important issues like news about giving free internet to 400 students, but none of the students have received it."
The senate has drawn up a list of 140 students from final-year BTech and MTech who are facing resource constraints demanding that they be recalled so that they can avail of the internet facilities on the campus.