A section of Presidency University students is staying on the campus through the night as a mark of protest because Eden Hindu Hostel is yet to be reopened.
The students, who launched their protest on Wednesday, are sleeping on a mattress on the floor beneath the staircase of the main building, which houses the offices of the vice-chancellor and other senior officials.
In-person classes at the university resumed on February 3.
Eden Hindu Hostel is located on PC Sarkar Street, a few yards from the Presidency campus on College Street.
Aryan Agrahari, a protesting student from Purulia, said their repeated pleas to the dean of students, Arun Kumar Maity, to reopen the hostel went unheeded.
Repeated calls and text messages to the dean from this newspaper went unanswered.
“Since the hostel has not been reopened, I was staying at a friend’s place in Jadavpur till Wednesday. But why would I do that when we have a hostel? Jadavpur University reopened hostels on February 7. We will continue our protest till Eden Hindu Hostel is reopened and we are allowed to stay there,” said Aryan, a postgraduate student of economics.
Hostels were closed along with the campuses in March 2020, following the outbreak of Covid-19.
When colleges and universities had reopened in mid-November, before being shut again on January 3 following a fresh spike in Covid cases, Eden Hindu Hostel was not reopened.
Anamitra Das, a protesting student from Malda, said he was forced to stay as a paying guest in Jadavpur because the hostel was yet to be reopened.
“The rent has gone up and I cannot afford it. Besides, why do I have to stay elsewhere when our university has a hostel. The dean is saying it may be difficult to maintain Covid-19 protocols at the hostel. When other campuses have reopened hostels in adherence to the protocols, why can’t Presidency do it?” asked Anamitra, a third-year student of geography honours.
Students demonstrating on the Presidency campus to press for the reopening of the hostel is nothing new.
Students had held an indefinite sit-in in front of the
VC’s office for over a month from October 1, 2018, to protest the delay in the repair of the hostel, which had been shut for restoration on July 29, 2015.
More than 150 students of the College Street institution then used to travel 15km every day to and from a rented accommodation in New Town.
