Life in JNU hit hard after PM Modi’s demonetisation move

New Delhi: The ongoing cash crunch in the wake of demonetisation has not spared even the Jawaharlal Nehru University students, with many finding the availability of food in the hostel mess as the only consolation.

Neither of the two ATMs in the campus was found to be working on Saturday and students were forced to wage a struggle even for basic necessities. “There’s no money with me. How will we live?” a JNU student said.

“Today, my roommate needed a sanitary pad. But we had no money to buy it. Finally, after some struggle, we were able to borrow it from one of the girls in the hostel,” she added.

Some students from Manipur also faced problems when they went to book the varsity auditorium. “There was this cultural program by Manipuri students but they only had old notes of Rs 500 or Rs 1,000 to pay the auditorium charges. At length, it was decided that an online payment will be made to the authorities, but even that wasn’t without its share of hassles,” JNU Students Union vice president Amal PP said.

 A talk on the current demonetisation crisis took place in the evening on the campus with economist Prabhat Patnaik as the speaker. Even the dhaba owners at the campus found it hard to turn down the students who came to their shops with big notes. “I just told them to buy things on credit. There’s no money with me as well. Let’s see who returns (the credit) when and who does not,” Mamu, a canteen owner in the campus said. “We don’t even know whether Prime Minister Narendra Modi will stick to this decision. He acts upon whatever crosses his mind,” he added.