
Jadavpur University students win, entrance exams restored
Agitating students and teachers of the arts faculty at Jadavpur University (JU) tasted victory late on Tuesday evening when the university authorities restored admission tests that were scrapped last week, leading to a marathon agitation on campus and outcry from eminent intellectuals and academicians.
Many people compared doing away with the decade-old examination system to moves made by the erstwhile Left Front government to influence the administration at JU and other universities in Bengal.
JU ranks fifth among the nation’s top 10 universities according to a 2017 survey by the Union HRD ministry.
The first official announcement on restoration of the old admission system was made at 8.30 pm on Tuesday after two marathon meetings of the JU executive council.
Interestingly, JU vice chancellor Suranjan Das and pro-vice chancellor PK Ghosh did not become party to the resolutions adopted by the executive council. This fanned ongoing speculations that they might put in their papers since Das had offered to resign earlier. “We will meet the chancellor. If we cannot run the administration properly we will step down,” Das said on Tuesday evening.
The admission tests were scrapped on July 4 allegedly under pressure from the Trinamool government because the official notice, announcing schedule of the written exams, was issued on June 27. Education minister Partha Chatterjee denied having any role in the fiasco but said two types of the admission system cannot co-exist in one education system. In most universities in Bengal, students are admitted on the basis of board exam results.
JU students however continued their hunger strike even after the exam system was restored in six departments of the arts faculty. The protest went on since the executive council did not decide whether the examinations would be conducted by JU teachers or an external body and left the matter to an admission committee comprising the registrar and the dean of arts faculty.
“This is the victory of JU’s heritage, its teachers and students. All this happened because a non-issue and made into an issue. The examination system has only elevated the standard of JU over the past decades,” said academician Anandadeb Mukhopadhyay, former vice-chancellor of Vidyasagar University and an ex-student and teacher of JU.
JU registrar Chiranjib Bhattacharjee said, “A female student who was on fast for 85 hour told us that the students were ready to face the consequences but would continue with the agitation.”

India reaches 20 million mark, 1.5 million inoculated in a single-day
- India is behind only the United States and the United Kingdom in terms of the total number of people receiving vaccination, data from the health ministry shows.

Amit Shah confident of NDA victory in upcoming TN assembly polls

Budget session of Parliament likely to be cut short due to assembly polls
- Parliament officials said that the government managers as well as many opposition leaders have requested Rajya Sabha chairman Venkaiah Naidu and Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla to cut short the session as leaders of many parties would be busy in the campaign for the polls.

J-K police continue verification drive of illegal Rohingyas
- The Jammu and Kashmir administration is also collecting biometric and other details of Rohingyas staying in the union territory.

From farms to mills, a long wait for UP farmers just to get sugarcane weighed
- Among those waiting at the weighing scale are also people who do not own land but are engaged in transporting sugarcane from farms to sugar mills after getting the yield measures at weighing scales.

News updates from HT: Amit Shah campaigns door-to-door in Kanyakumari
- Here are today’s top news, analysis, and opinion. Know all about the latest news and other news updates from Hindustan Times.

Covid-19: India's weekly tally rises over 114,000, daily fatalities average 100

When Mithun Chakraborty resigned from Rajya Sabha citing health reasons

Delhi among top 3 states with most contaminated sites in India

Priyanka Gandhi Vadra to address Kisan Mahapanchyat in Meerut today

SP to hold cycle rally in support of Azam Khan over cases lodged by UP police
- In January, the Supreme Court dismissed pleas of the Uttar Pradesh government challenging the bail granted to Samajwadi Party MP Azam Khan, his wife Dr Tanzeen Fathima, and son Abdullah Azam Khan in an alleged case of forging birth certificate.

Bombay HC refuses pre-arrest bail to judicial magistrate booked in bribery case
- An associate of the judicial magistrate allegedly demanded and accepted a bribe on her behalf for dismissing a criminal complaint against a milk vendor.

Omar Abdullah's swipe at Suvendu: 'Hasn't Kashmir become paradise after 2019?'

Called Modi ki dukan... buy medicine from there: PM launches Jan Aushadhi centre

Amit Shah visits Kerala as Vijayan govt battles to rid gold smuggling taint
- Earlier, the CM had hit out at BJP's minister of state for external affairs, V Muraleedharan, alleging after his elevation, smuggling from West Asian countries increased manifold