Two months after his demise, University of Hyderabad (UoH) released the fellowship arrears of Rohith Vemula. The amount Rs. 1.77 lakh which was mentioned in Rohith’s suicide note was issued as a cheque to the family here on Monday.
Even as the family has not accepted the ex-gratia which UoH promised following Rohith’s suicide, the deceased student’s mother, Radhika Vemula accepted the fellowship cheque issued in her name, varsity administration confirmed. “Rohith got the fellowship because of his impeccable academic record. His fellowship was unjustly stopped before his death. In honour of his memory and his hard work, we accepted the fellowship that was due to him,” Raja Vemula, Rohith’s brother said. In his suicide note, Rohith had said that the fellowship arrears should be given to his family posthumously. Before his demise, Rohith, who was a JRF fellow was denied seven months of his fellowship amount due to the UGC fund delay and other internal problems.
The fellowship was not released before Rohith’s death as administrative red tape had prevented the same, in-charge Vice Chancellor of UoH, M. Periasamy said.
“Rohith had left one course and joined another after a gap of one year. His application for discontinuation was not accepted and processed by the first department where he had taken admission. This had caused the delay in release of fellowship via the second department,” Mr. Periasamy clarified, adding the administration resolved the issues internally before it issued the cheque. “Rohith Vemula rightfully deserved the funds and this should rightfully go to his family,” the VC said. Students belonging to Justice for Rohith Vemula Joint Action Committee, however, pointed out that the administration could have released the funds before Mr. Vemula’s death. “If they could clear red tape and release funds now why did they not do this before he killed himself,” said S. Munna, a student leader of UoH said. All factors including delay in payment of fellowship had affected Mr. Vemula while he was alive, Mr. Munna pointed out.
