Kashmir University students demand refund of hostel fee since Aug 2019; varsity yet to decide

Srinagar: Kashmir University students availing accommodation have demanded refund of the hostel fee as they have not used the service for over a year, first due to August 5, 2019 lockdown and then the COVID-19 pandemic.

Hundreds of students from Kashmir valley avail hostel facility in the university and each student pays around Rs 40,000 as yearly hostel fee.

The students have written to the Vice Chancellor and urged the intervention of the J&K LG Manoj Sinha, who is also the Chancellor of the KU.

A student, who is also the member of Kashmir University Student Guild (KUSG) while talking to local news agency KDC, said no one stayed in the hostels since August 2019, except for two weeks ahead of COVID outbreak in March.

“We demand the university authorities refund our fee which we had paid in advance. The hostels were reopened in February this year after remaining closed for seven months due to shutdown imposed by the government after abrogation of the Article 370. After winter vacations hostels were reopened and some students from 2018 got accommodation in the hostel and paid approximate Rs 40,000 each but after that there was Covid lockdown from March 22, 2020 and students had to vacate. We stayed in the hostels for a month. So, we demand the money to be refunded,” the student said.

“We approached the Vice Chancellor’s office, his personal assistant said they will sort out the issue , but we are yet to receive a response from them since then,” he said.

When these students approached Provost boys hostel, Aejaz Ahmed, he had said they are working on the issue for the last two months.

The students were told by the provost that COVID 19 lockdown period might be refunded.

Provost boys hostel, Aejaz Ahmad said, “We have taken the issue with higher administration and any decision in this regard will be taken in due course of time. We will have to sort out how much time a student has stayed at the hostel before taking their demand into consideration”.