The IIT-Delhi has effected a 30-per cent reduction in the tuition fee for the new batch of M.Tech students following recommendations of a committee set up by the director, after a section of students staged a silent protest over "fee hikes".

The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) issued a statement after the silent protest staged by the students on the campus against the "recent fee hikes" in several courses."The fees have been reduced for those who joined during the second semester 2021-22 or later.

The tuition fee and other charges have been reduced significantly. The M.Tech full-time tuition fee has been reduced from Rs 25,000 per semester to Rs 17,500 per semester," the statement said.It said the tuition fees of other post-graduate (PG) programmes have been reduced and other components of the fees have been cut as well.

Students from various courses gathered at the Wind T Corridor on the IIT campus on Friday, with posters and placards displaying their refusal to accept the fee hike.The Students' Federation of India (SFI), along with the IIT Delhi Students' Collective, IIT-Bombay and IIT-Delhi's Ambedkar Periyar Phule Study Circle (APPSC), among other student bodies, expressed their solidarity with the protesters.

"The new entrants to the M.Tech programme in the institute are expected to pay fees that are 100 per cent higher than what those in the previous batch are paying. What was earlier Rs 26,450 (excluding the hostel fees, the mess bills and other charges) stands at a ruthless Rs 53,100," a statement issued by the SFI said.

The protesting students said they are already "struggling with post-COVID-19 stresses", along with the "inflation in the market"."If IIT-Delhi decides to stand by its anti-student stance, the protesting students have expressed that they will be forced to upgrade the present silent form of protest to a more resisting one soon," the SFI statement said.