The Hindu : New Delhi News : JNU students go on relay fast

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, May 30, 2006

New Delhi

New Delhi

JNU students go on relay fast

Staff Reporter

In support of anti-quota protests

GREEN PROTEST: Medical students planting trees to mark their protest against the Centre's move on quota, at MAMC in New Delhi on Monday. Photo: Rajeev Bhatt

NEW DELHI: After lending moral support to protests by medicos against the Central Government's move to reserve seats for Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in higher education, some students of the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) on Monday began a relay hunger strike on the campus.

The students demanded that apart from adopting the economic criteria for reservation and setting up a judicial commission, the Government should provide reservation to only one generation.

"If one person of a certain class has availed of reservation, his wards should not be allowed to use it again. This will help in ensuring that the creamy layer is kept away and the benefits of reservation actually reach the needy," said a student.

A member of the JNU chapter of the Youth for Equality (YFE) said that from Tuesday senior doctors from different hospitals and some students of Delhi University would meet people from the backward classes and assess whether they have actually benefited from reservation.

YFE spokesperson Sasmit Sarangi said the forum would reconsider its future course of action only after going through the order of the Supreme Court that admitted a public interest litigation petition on the issue.

Some IIT students here, who wanted to go on a hunger strike, were refused permission by the authorities.

Udit Raj, president of Indian Justice Party and convener of Arakshan Samarthak Morcha, has sought permission from the AIIMS Director to stage a sit-in on June 5 for the "well-being of the patients" there.

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