A section of Presidency University students is staying on the campus for over 25 days as a mark of protest because Eden Hindu Hostel has not yet reopened.
The students, who launched their protest on February 17, are sleeping on mattresses on the floor beneath the staircase of the main building that has the offices of vice-chancellor Anuradha Lohia and other senior officials.
The protesting students said as they could not afford the cost of PG accommodation they were taking shelter beneath the staircase.
On Friday, they went to the dean of students, Arun Maity’s office, seeking to know why the hostel has not been opened though in-person classes started from February 3. The dean then went to meet VC Lohia on the university’s New Town campus to discuss the issue.
A notice was posted on the website by the dean on Friday night, that says: “Vice-chancellor is considering the present health safety and hostel management issues carefully in order to open the hostel and commence its operation maintaining appropriate Covid 19 protocol. Accordingly, Presidency requires teachers as superintendent and assistant superintendent for both boys’ hostel and girls’ hostel (in Salt Lake) to ensure proper conduct of the day to day affairs while strictly maintaining Covid -19 norms and safety regulations…..The application for the posts may please be submitted to….by 31.03.22”
A university official said the teachers who used to act as the superintendent and assistant superintendent had resigned in January 2020 after a section of students sat on an indefinite sit-in in a dean’s office for several days over alleged delay in repair of wards 3, 4 and 5 of the hostel.
“Thereafter the campus had to be shut because of Covid. Now no teachers are willing to take the responsibility following fear of getting involved in the students’ unrest. Still we are trying to reopen the hostel,” he said.
Aryan Agrahari, a protesting student from Purulia, said the students had to protest repeatedly following the inaction of the university regarding the hostel and the university authorities should have resolved the issue on engaging the super and assistant super much earlier.
“The authorities came up with the notice after we scaled up the protest. This insensitive approach is at the root of the problem. Had they conducted sensibly then students won’t have to resort to protest at any point of time? This notice is nothing but a ploy to delay the reopening of the hostel,” he said.
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 increased manifold and I cannot afford it. Besides, why do I have to stay elsewhere when my university has a hostel?” 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.
