High drama was witnessed on Tuesday when the registrar tried to come out of his room to offer prayers on Mahashivratri, but the agitating students refused to let him go alone.
High drama was witnessed on Tuesday when the registrar tried to come out of his room to offer prayers on Mahashivratri, but the agitating students refused to let him go alone.
The standoff continued at Visva Bharati University as students demanding reopening of hostels and conducting online examinations refused to call off their sit-in outside the registrar’s office until their demands were met, while the official He also refused to leave his room till the students got up. their movement.
However, heads of departments held a meeting on Wednesday to discuss the ongoing situation, even as Vice-Chancellor Vidyut Chakraborty issued a notice declaring that the doors of the central office and library and other departments were “visitors”. will be closed for
The movement of over 200 students on Wednesday morning crossed 48 hours in which registrar Ashish Agarwal was inside his office, even as the students claimed that he did not gherao them and left if they wanted. can. The official, however, said that he would leave his chamber only when the protesters withdrew their agitation.
High drama was witnessed on Tuesday when the registrar tried to come out of his room to perform puja on Maha Shivratri, but the agitating students refused to let him go alone, and offered to accompany him. After this incident, he withdrew from his office and refused to leave it till the agitators left.
Protesting students have spent Tuesday night outside in the open.
He demanded that hostels be reopened for students from West Bengal and other states, who have to spend huge sums of money on accommodation in Bolpur city. He also demanded that the pending semester examinations of undergraduate and postgraduate students be conducted online as the syllabus was being taught in the same mode for the last two years.
The university said that it will take a decision on reopening the hostels that have been closed since March 2020 due to the outbreak of COVID-19, at an appropriate time, taking into account all the options.
The protesting students demonstrated inside the registrar’s office on Monday morning to press for their demands.
“The registrar wants us all to leave the place as a pre-condition for leaving their office. We have informed them that we will stay till the hostels reopen. We have asked them to go again and again from 10 am on Tuesday. But he is not going,” SFI leader Somnath So told PTI,
The Visva Bharati University Faculty Association has expressed solidarity with the agitating students, and urged the authorities to “come down from a high pedestal and take a humane approach to the issue as students are like their own children”.
While the VC and the registrar could not be contacted, a university official said that “some students are creating chaos, disrupting normal academic functioning”.
Another official of the institute said that the deprivation of fundamental rights to the registrar is shocking.