WITH A commitment to continue their protest till the proposal of enhancing reservation in Central Government-funded institutes was withdrawn, the three-day ‘Pen Down Movement’ of students at Institute of Technology in Banaras University came to an end here on Friday.
Since today was a public holiday in view of Ambedkar Jayanti and Good Friday, the university was closed. “Our stir will continue in one form or another, till the proposal of enhancing reservation for OBCs in Central Government -funded institutes is withdrawn”, an IT-BHU student told the Hindustan Times.
A large number of students continued to contact students of other Central Government institutes across the country through internet in Varanasi today.
“We are now contacting students of Indian Institute of Technology (IITs) who are going on ‘Pen Down Movement’ from April 17”, informed an IT-BHU student.
“We are going to withdraw our pen down movement and resume work form Saturday, but it does not mean that we have withdrawn our agitation against the proposal of enhancing reservation”, said the student, adding, “we will now try to garner support of a cross-section of society besides the students community”.
“We will contact intellectuals such as professors, doctors, authors and others and forward a memorandum to the President, Dr APJ Abdul Kalam to mount pressure on the Union Government”, said the student, adding, “We will extend our all support to any sort of protest of students at other Central Government-funded institutes”.
{{/usCountry}}“We will contact intellectuals such as professors, doctors, authors and others and forward a memorandum to the President, Dr APJ Abdul Kalam to mount pressure on the Union Government”, said the student, adding, “We will extend our all support to any sort of protest of students at other Central Government-funded institutes”.
{{/usCountry}}It may be noted that as part of their ‘Pen Down Movement’, the first year students of IT-BHU did not appear in the sessional examination of applied physics and applied chemistry on Thursday. The students of IT-BHU, including a large number of SC/ST and OBC students, are strongly protesting the proposal of enhancing reservation in Central Government-funded institutes.