What is the exact hostel fee being charged now? Confusion among 'non-agitating' students at JNU

While a section of JNU students agitating over hostel fee hike took out a march to the HRD Ministry on Thursday, the "non-agitating" students are still in a dilemma whether to register for a new semester or not due to lack of clarity on the fee amount being finally charged.

After the hostel fee hike was announced by JNU last November, there has been a series of consultations and "partial-rollbacks" and "waivers" with the students taking to the streets boycotting exams, prompting the HRD Ministry to intervene for resolution of the issues.

The university, however, began the registration process for the semester from January 1.

While the administration officials including Vice Chancellor M Jagadesh Kumar have repetitively maintained that students are not being charged utility and service expenses, there has been no official notification, which has caused confusion.

"I have nothing to do with protests. I don't go to any but I haven't registered yet. I have no clue what is being charged ultimately. One person says something, another says something else," said a student pursing MA in International Relations, not wishing to be identified.

Another student at the School of Linguistics said, "I get daily calls from my family back in Jharkhand, enquiring why I have not registered yet. I do not want a semester to go waste but there is no clarity on what we should pay. I am told that utility and service charges like electricity will not be charged but when I login to the portal it says 'as per actuals'. How can that be possible?"