The veterinary hospital and university in Belgachhia has reopened after a month and a half of strike by faculty members.

The West Bengal University of Animal and Fishery Sciences had been closed since the first week of January. Besides the main campus, the university has its dairy branch in Mohonpur and fisheries branch near Garia. Teachers of all three campuses were demonstrating before vice chancellor (VC) Prof Purnendu Biswas’s office at Belgachhia.

The demands of the faculty were related to promotions, salary scale, health schemes etc. Classes were suspended and since the hospital was shut too, patient parties had to return home without treatment.

“We understand the inconvenience but had no choice. We had been voicing our dissent for too long without any action by the authorities. We had to go on strike,” said Arun Kumar Mandal, an elected member of the veterinary faculty council. “In case any critical patients were brought in, we were referring them to senior post- graduation students, especially in the field of surgery and medicine.”

The teachers finally ended the strike on February 18, after some of their demands were met. The previous VC has also retired and Prof Chanchal Guha has taken over.