This petition is from all the students, who are pursuing their higher education in Uttarakhand. As, thousands of students live in different cities, away from their homes in hostels, PGs and rooms, so they need to pay rent for their rooms even in this time of lockdown when they aren’t using them.

     Students living in hostel can ask for refund as a group, from their respective college, but the student living outside the college hostels have no such options. They are left on their own, to do one-on-one negotiations with their landlords, which is useless. That’s why this petition is directed to Government of Uttarakhand.

Our arguments and reasons are:

1) The first reason is, we pay rent for rooms to live there for pursuing our education. While the universities and colleges are closed and we aren’t living there, so why we need to pay the rent?

2) Some universities aren’t taking hostel fees from their students and such moves are being highly appreciated. But, what about the others, those who live in PGs and rooms?

3) As per UGC’s guidelines, the universities are closed at least till 1 August. So, that means from march to july (for 5 months), we need to pay on about Rs. 25,000 for nothing.

Rent for 1 month = Rs 3000 - Rs.5000
Rent for 5 months = Rs 15,000 - Rs.25,000
     

  Point to be noted here is that , Rs. 25,000 is not a small amount .It is more than the college fees of some students and even more than salaries of our parents for 2 months.

4) Most of the (almost all of the) landlords are not totally dependent on the rents for their living. They have jobs, business, pensions, etc. as their main source of income. So, there will be serious financial issue for them except a small cut in their extra income, because of relaxation in rent for students.

5) We are students; we don’t have much stuff with us in our rooms. As, we brought clothes and books with us while coming back, so our rooms doesn’t have anything belonging to us except maybe a blanket & a bed sheet. And paying Rs. 25,000 for accommodation for almost nothing doesn’t only seem ridiculous, but it is indeed absurd.

6) The government should understand that if such an order is not issued right now, most of the students may seek to leave their rooms instead of paying the rent. As already mentioned, students don’t have any special possession in those rooms, so leaving the room will be 10 times more beneficial to them. This may lead to a situation of confusion and conflict between many students and landlords.

     We aren’t not asking for any compensation and allowances from the government. As such demand makes no sense at all. 
      So, what we are asking for is relaxation and refund of rent till the time universities are closed.
      So, we hope the Government of Uttarakhand will take the concerns of students and parents very seriously and will save hard earned money of our parents. 

Thank you. 

PS: There is no political intention of this petition, it is a geniune request of students to their government.