Around 30 students of Visva-Bharati’s Palli-Siksha Bhavana — the department of agriculture — on Friday launched an agitation in front of the varsity’s central administrative office demanding internal quota for admission to postgraduate courses.

The students, who continue to gherao officials of the varsity’s admission cell till late on Friday evening, demanded a halt to the ongoing counselling process for admission. They said Visva-Bharati’s admission process deprived internal students whereas two other state universities in Bengal had quotas for their own students.

There are three universities in Bengal that offer postgraduate degrees in agriculture — Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya, Uttar Banga Krishi Viswavidyalaya and Visva-Bharati. The first two universities are run by the state, while Visva-Bharati is a central university.

“Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya reserves 80 per cent of its total postgraduate seats for their internal students and Uttar Banga Krishi Viswavidyalaya provides 10 per cent grace marks for their own students. In the case of Visva-Bharati, all 61 seats are open to all. Visva-Bharati offers internal quota for all other departments but not in agriculture. We are opposed it,” said an agitating student.

The students alleged that because of unequal competition, they were not getting admission in the two state varsities, while there was no quota for them in Visva-Bharati.

“At a time when every department has an internal quota, why should the agriculture department be an exception? We are protesting against the injustice,” said a student.

On Friday evening, after the agitation went past 10 hours, varsity officials started talks with two student representatives but the issue remained unresolved till the filing of this report.

“The merit list has already been released and we can’t withdraw it now. We sympathise with the problems of the students but they could have come before the list was published,” said an official.