Presidency University resumes bus service for hostel girls

Presidency University on Monday resumed bus service to ferry girl students to the campus from their hostel in Salt Lake and then take them back, after days of sustained protest by the students.

The first bus started from the hostel in BF Block at 9am on Monday.

Eight slots for picking up and dropping students at the hostel would be provided.

The bus service remained discontinued over the past two years, forcing the students to stage an indefinite sit-in demonstration on the campus.

Suswati Jana, one of the students who was part of the protest which lasted for 102 hours from March 15 to March 19, said the authorities signed a contract with the two private bus operators last Thursday.

According to the agreement, the 150-odd hostel residents have to pay a monthly fee of Rs 800. Students, however, demanded that they be charged Rs 500 per month.

“We see the resumption as the partial victory of our protest. We are calling this as partial victory because the fee is higher that what we demanded. We have been told by the authorities that students coming from underprivileged background would be provided concessions,” said Jana.

Before the Covid pandemic set in, two buses, provided by the Calcutta State Transport Corporation, used to ferry students to and from the hostel.

The students used to pay then Rs 400 a month.

Although the campus reopened for physical classes in February 2022, the bus service was not resumed.

A Presidency official said since the government did not offer the same service after the campus reopened, they had to discontinue the service.

A hostel resident said they have been told that the Presidency authorities would float tenders after three months to choose the service providers through bidding. Then the charge is expected to come down further she said.

Calls to the dean of students went unanswered.