Nashik Students Protest Against DBT Outside The State Tribal Development Office

Activists and NGOs are already speaking against the new Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) scheme being implemented. Now, the Students Federation of India (SFI), a group formed by the hostel students in Nashik, protested against the new scheme in front of the office of state tribal development commissioner reports the Times of India. The students says that they want nutritious food in the mess and not cash per month.

Students Demand Continuity Of Food

The protest was taken up by almost 1,000 students who shouted slogans against DBT. The publication reports that they were stopped by the police but forcefully entered the front yard of the office. “Tribal students staged a day-long peaceful protest last month, but the government is yet to take any student-friendly decision on the DBT for food issue. We want properly maintained mess facility and nutritious food. There is no point in giving an insufficient amount of Rs 3,000 per month for two meals a day,” Uttam Gavit, one of the SFI members leading the agitation told the Times of India.

The students not only expressed their dislike on DBT but also demanded that the in-house mess services in hostels be improved. During the protest, the students shouted slogans, played the tribal drums and sang folk songs. Hours after the protest, a batch of students were allowed to meet a senior official to whom they gave a memorandum of their demands. “We were told that Savra or chief minister can take a decision to revoke the DBT for food scheme,” Navnath Morey, a student told the Times of India.