The demand for the resumption of students’ union elections has gone beyond Calcutta Medical College and Hospital.
A section of students of Jadavpur University squatted before the car of vice-chancellor Suranjan Das on Thursday afternoon, demanding that the campus elections be held immediately.
The protest on the JU campus erupted on a day the students of Calcutta Medical College and Hospital, who held a hunger strike for several days demanding the polls, conducted the elections on their own.
Students of the engineering and technology faculty of Jadavpur University started their agitation on the portico of Aurobindo Bhavan, the administrative headquarters, around 2.30pm.
They began drawing posters and raising slogans. When vice-chancellor Das, who sits on the first floor of Aurobindo Bhavan, was leaving the campus at 3.30pm, the protesting students sat in front of his car.
They demanded that Das take steps to conduct the polls immediately.
Das had to step out of the vehicle and walk back to his office.
Aritra Majumder, the chairperson of the faculty of engineering and technology students’ union (Fetsu), said: “The students’ union election has not been held over the past three years. Like the students of the medical college have started a protest, we too have the same demand.”
Education minister Bratya Basu had in July said the state government was keen to conduct the elections to college and university students’ unions “in a free and fair way”.
Since campuses reopened in the middle of February, the state government has been exploring the possibility of conducting the polls, an education department official had said then but has yet to come up with a notification.
Polls in unitary universities like Presidency and Jadavpur were last held in December 2019. Elections in colleges affiliated to universities were last held in 2016.
“We had earlier written to the education department about holding the campus elections. Unless the government gives us permission, we cannot hold the elections on our own,” VC Das told The Telegraph.
The VC later received a memorandum from students.
A JU official said: “The students’ demand will be discussed at a meeting of the university’s executive council on December 28. Then the VC will communicate the resolution of the council to the state education department.”
VC Das finally left the campus after 5pm.
At the Calcutta Medical College and Hospital, several hundred students cast their votes on Thursday.
The medical college authorities had scheduled the election for December 22, only to defer it indefinitely days later. This angered the students.
West Bengal’s junior health minister Chandrima Bhattacharya visited the hospital on December 12 and said that it was not possible to hold the elections immediately.
The students withdrew their protest on December 19 but vowed to hold polls on December 22.
JU circular
Jadavpur University has issued a circular stating that the consumption of alcohol and drugs within the campus is strictly prohibited. The circular signed by registrar Snehamanju Basu says anyone found violating this will be prosecuted in accordance with the law.
JU vice-chancellor Suranjan Das said the circular had been issued because he had received complaints from teachers about the consumption of alcohol and drugs on the campus.