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PhD students withdraw long march as Maharashtra govt accepts demands partially

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The week-long march organized by BARTI, SARTHI, MAHAJYOTI Kruti Samiti against the PhD fellowship stipend delays has been withdrawn after a prompt response from a government delegation on the same day. The representatives of the PhD students’ collective successfully negotiated the release of delayed stipends, as Chief Minister Eknath Shinde instructed the relevant authorities to initiate the process for the release of funds.

After the student protesters launched their long march on June 24 from Phule Wada, Minister of Rural Development Girish Mahajan, along with a state delegation, got in touch with the committee of student representatives to discuss the issue and hear their grievances. The student representative’s committee demanded to communicate with the Chief Minister directly and were offered an audience with him the next day.

CM Eknath Shinde met with the student representatives on June 25 in Mumbai and heard their demands. He then instructed Sumant Bhange, Secretary of Social Justice and Special Assistance Department, to raise the matter in the next cabinet meeting and organise a video-conference meeting with the directors of BARTI, SARTHI & MAHAJYOTI. Accordingly, the issue was raised in the cabinet meeting the next day. A draft letter to initiate the process for the release of fellowship funds was circulated to the Finance and other relevant departments the same day.

Meanwhile the march was temporarily halted, while the students, camped in Chhatra Bharati campus in Pune, awaiting the outcome from these meetings. Tukaram Shinde, one of the coordinators, told The Satyashodhak, “The government has agreed to release the funds of the students whose fellowships were delayed since the date of their PhD advisor acceptance, in 2022. This is certainly a positive outcome which will benefit around 3,000 PhD students who were affected.” 

“Although they have immediately agreed to meet our first demand; the government, at the moment, is reluctant to withdraw the 30th October GR, which was our second crucial demand. The push for bringing uniformity of functioning across these four institutions and capping of students to 200 per institution (100 for TRTI) is arbitrary and unfair. It comes from misunderstanding of students’ needs. But we have not given up and are determined to explore all the possible legal options to put forth our points and hope that it would help in clearing any misunderstanding,” he further stated.

The student’s collective has withdrawn the long march for now, which succeeded in securing the release of fellowship funds. However, the fight for protecting the autonomy of these crucial institutions continues. BARTI, SARTHI, MAHAJYOTI Kruti Samiti will take a collective decision on future action plan in the coming days, depending on further developments.

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