JNU students' protest figures in Lok Sabha

Raising the issue of protest by JNU students, BSP member Danish Ali demanded in the Lok Sabha on Monday that the government should ensure that poor students were not denied the facility of higher education for an affordable fee.

He regretted that the education system of the country was being privatised and corporatised under the rule of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

The government should look into the demands of poor students and take appropriate action, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) member said during the Zero Hour.

Earlier in the day, hundreds of JNU students took out a protest march from the university campus towards Parliament amid a heavy police deployment.

The students of the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) here have been protesting for nearly three weeks against the draft hostel manual, which has provisions for a hostel fee hike, a dress code and curfew timings.

Initially, the barricades outside the gates of JNU were removed and the students were allowed to march. The police later stopped the march around 500 metres from the university's gates.

The protesters were seen carrying banners with messages such as "save public education", "fees must fall" and "ensure Affordable hostels for all".