IIT-Kharagpur urges students agitating over price rise to restore normalcy

The institute's mess overhead charges were increased from Rs 8,250 to Rs 15,800

IIT-Kharagpur Director P P Chakrabarti has urged agitating students to restore normalcy at the institute and called for bridging the communication gap.

The IIT-Kharagpur on Thursday dubbed the agitation as "undemocratic" after a section of students demanded the rollback of a hike in mess overhead charges but said efforts were on to engage with them in a reasonable manner.

"The situation arising out of such over-reaction was extremely painful for all of us, including me," Chakrabarti said in a letter to all the students dated December 22.

"Some of you have been agitating regarding the revised mess overhead charges that are applicable from the next semester. The reasons are due to the sudden increase in the charges from Rs 8,250 to Rs 15,800. While the institute was willing to listen to the students in a peaceful manner, we were not at all agreeable to engage in any discussion under duress," Chakrabarti said.

He asserted IIT-Kharagpur is "the last institute to overburden students unnecessarily or discriminate among them".

The director also requested the students to "not be provoked into creating an atmosphere" that creates a negative image of the institute and its students for the rest of the world.

"I guess that there has been some communication gap as IIT-KGP students are not known to react this way. We are in the process of examining all the issues in details to see what is the best we can do," he said.

Hoping that good sense will prevail and the students will "refrain and get back to the true normal of IIT-KGP", Chakrabarti said the authorities will try to work out what is "best possible as soon as they can" and discuss how to take their demands forward in the future in a "democratic manner".

"We have to remove the disconnection that I observed in a much better manner. If you have any suggestions, please consolidate them and share with us," he added.