Members of the Forum for Students with Disabilities (FSD) at Jadavpur University held a protest on Tuesday alleging that a centre was occupying a facility that was set up for them and the authorities were not getting it vacated.
The students held the protest at the open-air theatre on the campus while a ceremony to award degrees was on there.
The FSD members said the authorities had remained quiet though the university’s executive council had in September adopted a resolution that the facility be transferred to students with disabilities.
Asked why the council’s decision was not being implemented, pro vice-chancellor Chiranjeeb Bhattacharya said: “There are certain operational issues. The problem will be resolved in a week.”
Suraj Jha, joint convener of the forum, said the executive council had decided on September 10 to shift the Centre for Persons with Disabilities to the HEPSN (Higher Education for Persons with Special Needs) building, constructed with funds allocated by UGC for their welfare.
“But the building is encroached on by the Centre for Studies in Cultural Diversity and Well-being, led by professor Manojit Mandal. As a result, the Centre for Persons with Disabilities has been accommodated at a facility that is not user-friendly for us. We want the HEPSN building as it is user-friendly,” said Jha.
Mandal was appointed the coordinator of the Higher Education for Persons with Special Needs (HEPSN) cell in 2014.
He said a UGC-funded project he was overseeing on behalf of the cell ended in 2019. “Thereafter, with funds under the Rashtriya Ucchatara Shiksha Abhiyaan (phase 1), the Centre for Studies in Cultural Diversity and Well-being was opened at the same building with permission from the authorities in 2019,” Mandal said.
The centre runs diploma courses in psychological and career counselling.
Why is he not vacating the facility in compliance with the executive council’s decision?
“The university authorities have to let us know whether they will accommodate us at an alternative facility or throw us out.... I have not received any communication from them,” Mandal told The Telegaph.
When students from the forum were holding protests at the gate of the open-air theatre with placards, pro VC Bhattacharya got off the dais and tried to pacify then. VC Suranjan Das was awarding degree certificates.