Editor,
Through your esteemed paper, I seek to highlight the high HEFA (higher education financing agency) hostel fees in Rajiv Gandhi University (RGU) and request the AAPSU, the RGUSU and our chief rector, the governor, to kindly intervene in the matter, so that the fees are rationalised.
Presently, there are two types of hostels in RGU – one being the regular hostel and the other being the HEFA hostel. The admission fee for both the hostel is Rs 500 each but the rent per bed in the HEFA hostel is Rs 1,000, whereas for regular hostel it’s only Rs 600 per bed. And most importantly, whereas the mess fee in regular hostel is Rs 2,800 per month, for HEFA hostel it is a high Rs 3,500 per month per student.
When we enquired, the wardens told us that since the HEFA hostel has been constructed from HEFA loan money, the university has to keep prices higher for students, in an effort to pay back.
But the irony is, if the hostels have been constructed with borrowed money, how does it justify that students have to pay higher prices for it? Why is the student community being made the scapegoats for the university’s decision?
Therefore, we request all student unions concerned, and particularly the chief rector, to kindly intervene in the matter, so that that the HEFA hostel fees is also made the same as normal regular hostel fees, because not every student has the financial capacity to afford the present fees.
Aggrieved student,
RGU