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Presidency V-C gheraoed since Monday; students, authorities refuse to budge
A faculty member said, requesting anonymity, that teachers are trying to mediate between the students and authorities but no solution emerged till Wednesday afternoon.
Students of the Presidency University (PU) have confined vice-chancellor (VC) Anuradha Lohia to her chamber since Monday and there was no sign of them withdrawing the agitation over issues like hostel renovation among others on Wednesday afternoon.
Lohia managed to give the students a slip early on Tuesday, went out of the campus unnoticed and returned in the afternoon. She has remained confined at her chamber since then.
The student agitation, which started with some demands related to the renovation of Hindu Hostel, entered the fifteenth day on Wednesday. The students have been sitting on an indefinite protest in front of the V-C’s office.
“Our movement started with four demands related to hostel renovation but has got a set of seven demands, as three issues got added due to the steps taken by authorities during the agitation,” said Souren Malik, general secretary of the students’ union.
Malik said students had submitted seven deputations with the VC, addressing seven different issues, but received no response to any of them. One of the issues is the recent transfer of a number of the hostel’s staff and students are demanding they are reinstated.
The agitation is being spearheaded by PU students’ union, run by Students’ Federation of India (SFI), the student wing of the Communist Party of India (Marxist).
“Since the VC has refused to speak to us on our demands, the agitation will continue. She is free to go back to her home. No student will block her way. But we are not moving from our agitation site,” said Deeprajit, a student in the economics department.
On Tuesday, several classes were hampered due to the agitation.
Despite repeated attempts, neither the vice-chancellor nor registrar Debajyoti Konar could be contacted for comments.
A faculty member said, requesting anonymity, that teachers are trying to mediate between the students and authorities but no solution emerged till Wednesday afternoon.
State education minister Partha Chatterjee urged students to exercise restraints.
“We are always in favour of being lenient in dealing with student agitations. But students also need to understand that gheroaing the authorities at the drop of a hat is not the way to go about pressing for their demands,” Chatterjee said.
