GUWAHATI: Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Guwahati graduated Master of Arts (MA) and Master of Science (MSc) students from the 2018-2020 batch are demanding return of caution money amounting to Rs 9,600.
The amount was deposited by the students during the time of admission in the July-November 2018 session. The breakup of the amount is mentioned below-
1. Institute caution money- Rs 1,000
2. Library caution money- Rs 1,000
3. Hostel caution money- Rs 4,000
4. Mess deposit- Rs 3,600
Total- Rs 9,600
The students have expressed their distress due to the delay in transfer of the security deposit amount by the institute, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic situation.
Meanwhile, students have filed multiple RTIs (Right To Information) enquiring about any stipulated time period within which the refund will be initiated. To which the institute replied, "There is no specified time frame for the refund of caution money. The refund process is initiated upon the ‘No Dues’ clearance form and the bank account details of the student. These are then sent to Finance and Accounts for release of caution money."
Another RTI reply from IITG suggested that the caution money for the 2020 batch of M Tech and Ph.D. has already been released. However, for programs such as MA, MSc, B Tech and B Des (Bachelor of Design), the release of the money is under process.
"It has been an entire year since the batch of 2020 graduated from the institute, 8 months since the convocation, and 2 months since the details of bank accounts for the purpose of refunding the caution money were collected. But neither have we received the caution deposit, nor has there been any communication on the part of the institute to inform us of any progress," an alumnus of IITG told G Plus.
"Not all students come from a privileged background and this is a huge amount for many, especially in these tough times. I hope the institute takes immediate action and considers our requests of refunding the deposit money at the earliest," another student told G Plus on grounds of anonymity.
G Plus made several attempts to get a comment on this story from IITG, but no response was forthcoming till the time of this report being published.