Photos: A week of student protests in Kolkata against fee hikes, infrastructure

Jul 14, 2018 11:58 IST

Presidency University students’ union members have been continuing with a sit-in at the campus since July 12 to protest against an “abnormal hike” in counselling fee to courses in BA and B. Sc streams. The sit-in at the offices of the Registrar and Deans is in protest against the decision to charge Rs 500 instead of the earlier fee of Rs 100 as counselling fee. (Samir Jana / HT Photo)

It’s been a bit over a week since multiple instances of protests across the West Bengal capital’s educational institutions began. The first among these was an indefinite strike by students of the Medical College and Hospital, demanding transparency in the hostel allocation counselling system. The protest began nearly ten days ago and is at a stalemate. (Samir Jana / HT Photo)

The bone of contention in this case is a new hostel building that has been earmarked by authorities only for freshers. Existing students are in protest over the dilapidated condition of the existing hostel, and were awaiting being housed in the at least 650 person capacity building that was coming up. (Samir Jana / HT Photo)

Meanwhile at Jadavpur University, days of pressure from students and a large section of teachers saw university authorities on Tuesday decide to bring back the test system for admission to six undergraduate courses. Students had also been observing an indefinite hunger strike at the university. (Samir Jana / HT Photo)

The decision to admit students in the six UG courses in the humanities stream, by giving equal weightage to both admission test and marks obtained in the plus two board examination, was taken at an emergent meeting of the Executive Council, five days after students went on hunger strike. (Samir Jana / HT Photo)

However, Vice Chancellor Suranjan Das (C) and Pro Vice Chancellor Pradip Ghosh put it on record that they were not party to the resolution that was carried by majority. Das announced that he and Ghosh would meet West Bengal Governor K.N. Tripathi - the ex-officio Chancellor - and seek that they be relieved of their posts. (Samir Jana / HT Photo)

Of the three student concerns, only Jadavpur University has found resolution. Presidency University Registrar Debojyoti Konar has said, they play no role in the matter, the entire counselling process an undertaking of the West Bengal Joint Entrance Examination. And with the Medical College authorities not agreeing to demands, students there have also threatened to intensify protests. (Samir Jana / HT Photo)

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Students across public education institutions in Kolkata, West Bengal have been leading various protests and demonstrations, ranging from sit-ins to indefinite hunger strikes over issues like fee hikes, hostel accomodation and changes in admission procedures for over a week. Jadavpur University, Presidency University and the Medical College and Hospital in the city have seen students facing off against authorities. While the Jadavpur University issue against a change in admission processes to the humanities stream courses found resolution this week, student protests at the other institutions continue.