NSUI members attempt to march to Parliament House, held

Hundreds of NSUI activists and supporters were detained on Monday when they tried to march to Parliament House and gherao it to demand waiving of educational loans and deferring of payment of admission fee till March next year.

Around 1,000 National Students Union of India (NSUI) supporters from across the country marched towards Parliament House -- where the winter session of both the houses of Parliament is on since November 16 -- to gherao it but were detained by police and taken to Parliament Street police station.

"We demand waiving of educational loans of students. If the government can waive outstanding loan dues worth crores of rupees of capitalists, it can certainly do it for students," NSUI President Amrita Dhawan told IANS.

"We demand that since students are going through a severe cash crunch (after demonetisation), they be exempted from paying admission fee till March next, or else allowed to use old currency notes," she said.

The Centre had banned old notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 from November 8 midnight.

The protesters said demonetisation had left people penniless and the note ban was not in public interest.

Congress leaders Anand Sharma, Deepender Singh Hooda, Ahmed Patel and Randeep Surjewala were among those who addressed the protesters and accused the Centre of apathy towards public misery after demonetisation.

"This note-ban is nothing but an attempt to draw people's attention away from the government's failures. During its 2014 general election campaign, the Bharatiya Janata Party had promised to create two crore jobs if it came to power. However, only two lakh jobs have been created till now since May 2014," Amrita Dhawan said.

"The Centre is indulging in self-glorification by renaming central schemes and structures, while the people are forced to stand in queues for long hours to get their own money," the NSUI leader added.

A memorandum meant for Prime Minister Narendra Modi was submitted by protesters to officials concerned, which termed the demonetisation authoritarian and violation of the Constitution.

--IANS

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