The portico of Jadavpur University — the familiar stage of protest sit-ins on the campus — was taken over by some new occupants on Thursday.
JU’s officiating vice-chancellor, pro-vice chancellor, registrar, dean of science and other members of the university’s executive council held a sit-in through Wednesday night after the students allegedly barged into their meeting and disrupted proceedings.
Usually, students occupy the space to press for their demands and the authorities are often held hostage.
A council member said a section of students literally gate-crashed the meeting and allegedly tried to intimidate the authorities into accepting demands which sought to curb the role of the administration.
“Disgusted with the disruptive role, the dean of science, Subenoy Roy, started a sit-in at 1.43am. Soon, officiating VC Buddhadeb Sau, pro-VC Amitabha Datta, registrar Snehnamanju Basu and others joined the protest,” the member said.
The sit-in was lifted at 7.30pm on Thursday.
The Telegraph reported on Thursday that the students first started saying they would not allow any relocation of senior students from hostels. The relocation is a must to segregate the hostel for first-year students.
“They barged into the committee room No. 1 where the meeting was underway and demanded representation from all 15 hostels in bodies like the executive council, anti-ragging committee, ant-ragging squad and students’ welfare
board, regardless of the fact that this was not permitted under statutes,” said
VC Sau.
“Office-bearers of the students’ unions are present in most of these forums. But they insisted on representation from the hostels. We began sit-ins to protest these illegitimate demands.”
A memorandum submitted to the council by “All UG-PG hostel” said: “We feel that any decision about hostel-related matters is incomplete, inconclusive and undemocratic without consideration of opinions of all hostel boarders. Hence we demand representation of the hostel boarder in all forms of administrative and policy-making bodies....”
Registrar Snehamanu Basu, who suffers from a niggling pain in her knees, could be seen sitting on the floor of the corridor in front of the committee room No. 1. She also sat on the flight of steps near the portico.
“How can we run an administration if we are prevented from working? The UGC is repeatedly asking us whether we have segregated a separate hostel for first-year students since a fresher died on
August 10 following an incident in the main hostel. But students are opposed to anyone being relocated. The UGC had said in 2009 that hostels should be segregated. But we cannot work because of this persistent opposition,” Basu said.
A first-year student was allegedly ragged in the main
hostel in August. He died during the early hours on August 10.
Somnath Saha, a protesting student, said: “Since the union representatives do not necessarily represent the hostel representatives, we demanded our representation. We have apologised to the council for our conduct. But our demands are not baseless.”