Jamia Millia Islamia, one of the top universities of India, presents a new picture of ‘Digital India’ today. This picture comes from the university surroundings as the institute is accepting ONLY CASH as the fee for 2023 admissions. The adamance of the institute has bound students to stand in long queues to withdraw cash from ATMs when the capital state is drenched in Monsoon.
Getting admission to a reputed university like JMI is a dream for thousands of youths. That youth is queued in front of all the ATMs nearby the university campus. What happened to the idea of cashless service? Where’s Digital India that PM Modi dreamt of? When Bharat Express spoke to the PRO of the university, Ahmad Azim, he admitted that the admission fee amount is being deposited in cash but the administration is trying to ensure that in future admissions, fees can be collected digitally.
In the third decade of the 21st century, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi talks about cashless and paperless transactions and wants India to take the top position in the digital world, how the campaign of cashless India is being promoted in one of the top central universities of the country, is very evident in the picture. This is the case in Jamia Millia Islamia University, where the Vice Chancellor, Professor Najma Akhtar, claims to be in support of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Vikas Ki Yatra. Long queues of students outside ATMs to transact cash for their fees bear witness to the ground truth of her claims.
Even the Finance Officer of Ummah Millia Islamia is not aware of the fact that the admission fee is not being collected online. When Bharat Express spoke to the university’s Finance Officer Sheikh Saifullah to get more information on it, he expressed his lack of knowledge and was unable to give his statement on what is the procedure of fee collection.
