Students set deadline to take back fee hike

NOWSHERA: The male and female students of all the colleges in Nowshera district on Monday blocked the Grand Trunk Road at the Shobra Chowk against the Abdul Wali Khan University, Mardan, for a hike in fees.

The protesting students led by the leaders of the Muttahida Talaba Mahaz, including Asim Khan Alimzai, Aqib Durrani, Waqar, Abbas and others, blocked the GT Road for hours for all kinds of vehicular traffic.

The commuters and motorists faced great hardships when the traffic remained suspended and long queues of vehicles were seen on both sides of the road.Speaking on the occasion, the student leaders said that the KP governor, who is also chancellor of all the public sector universities, should direct AWKUM to take back the decision of increasing fees in the colleges as the poor students were not able to pay heavy charges.

They said it was mandatory for the government to provide quality education to the children and youths and the public sector educational institutions should not be made business centres to generate revenue. The speakers said the government should provide relief to the students instead of putting more burden on them through high fees.

The student leaders said that price-hike of essential food items and unprecedented inflation had broken the back of the poor people, who were now unable to send children to schools and colleges.