New Delhi: The Delhi Police on Monday cracked down on protesting students of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) and resort to lathicharge after a clash in the national capital. The students were marching towards the Rashtrapati Bhavan in Delhi to press for their demands over University's fee hike. The police cane charged both male and female students after they tried to break through the barricades put up in south Delhi's Bhikaji Cama Place area, which was cordoned off by the police. Television visuals showed police pushing back students trying to jump over barricades erected there.

Earlier in the day, hundreds of the JNU students marched out of the JNU campus. Though the march started almost four hours late as the security forces had sealed all the gates of the JNU in early morning to stop the march. It was only after a lot of convincing by the JNU students union (JNUSU) that march was allowed.

The march from the JNU to the President's House was called by the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students Union (JNUSU) after their month-long protest failed to have any effect upon the administration, which rejected their demand of complete rollback of the proposed hike in the hostel charges.

The students have been protesting for over a month over the steep hike proposed in the hostel fees. The draft hostel manual proposed to hike hostel charges from Rs 10 for double occupancy to Rs 300, and Rs 600 for single occupancy from the earlier Rs 20.

However, after the student protests, the varsity administration announced a 50 percent concession for the BPL category students, but it failed to pacify students. The issue is being handled by a high-powered committee of the Union Ministry of Human Resources Department, which has given its recommendations to the varsity administration after several meetings with students and their representatives.

(with inputs from IANS)