Regular classes in over 60 per cent of colleges in Karnataka were affected on Saturday because of a daylong protest organised by the Congress-affiliated National Students Union of India over demands including immediate payment of pending scholarships to weaker sections.

Students held protests outside campuses of a majority of colleges in the state amid fears that the BJP government would emulate the Centre in withdrawing scholarships for weaker sections.

The Centre last month stopped its share in the post-matric scholarships for SC/ST students and early this month folded up the Maulana Azad National Fellowship for students from minority communities, launched by the UPA on the recommendations of the Sachar Committee. It also limited the pre-matric scholarships to Classes IX and X.

“We fear that the state government is heading in the direction of the Union government and will scrap scholarships that have been a lifeline for students from weaker sections,” state NSUI vice-president Chinmayee Gowda, a gynaecologist, told The Telegraph.

The protest is an outcome of the long wait for the universities and the state government to act on the union’s charter of demands, mainly to release scholarships for OBCs, SCs/STs and Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) in government colleges pending for a year. “After much protest, the government released one year’s scholarship in 2021. The payments were affected apparently due to Covid. But now students are suffering due to non-payment of scholarships,” Gowda said.

Students are paid Rs 5,000 to Rs 8,000 annually depending on the category. “To make things worse, the state hiked the annual fees in government colleges by almost 200 per cent to about Rs 4,300 this year, which is a steep rise for students from weaker sections,” she added.

“Our demand is that the government college fees should be reduced immediately and made more affordable for students from poor families,” Gowda said. Delays between six and eight months in announcing semester results have been a burning issue for some time now.

The NSUI has demanded that the results be announced on time to help students seek higher learning opportunities. The NSUI also urged the government to fulfil its promise in the state budget to give free bus passes to government college students.