Visiting I&B Ministry team hopeful to resolve FTII crisis

Around 250 FTII students on strike since June 12 demanding removal of actor Gajendra Chauhan as governing council chairman

After 71 days of strike, there is a ray of hope for resolving the issue of FTII. Around 250 FTII students have been on strike since June 12 demanding the removal of actor Gajendra Chauhan, as chairman of the premier film institutes's governing council.

The three-member team led by the Registrar of Newspapers in India (RNI) S M Khan was in Pune to resolve the ongoing impasse at the institute. The team had a meeting with director, alumni, faculty members and students of FTII.

"After having a day long discussion with everybody at FTII, we will submit a report to the Information and Broadcasting Ministry on Monday. The talks were very positive and conducted in a logical manner. We tried to understand the issues of the institute. Everybody is very much concern about resolving the issue. I am hopeful for some positive results."

However, Khan refused to share more details of the meeting saying that all of them looking for a logical solution to resolve this issue. When asked about the withdrawing the FIR against the students, Khan replied, "The local authorities and police are doing their job. They have to follow the procedure. I am not in a position to comment on this."

The students, who are on strike since June 12 to oppose the appointment of institute chairman Gajendra Chauhan, expressed happiness about the talks saying it was fruitful and much awaited that ministry talked to the students.

"We are very happy that they came here and talked to us. We told the ministry officials that conducive atmosphere is necessary for talks," said Vikas Urs, secretary of the FTII Students' Association

On Wednesday night, five students were arrested and taken to a police station after the institutes's director, Prashant Pathrabe lodged a complaint against them for detaining him on campus on Monday.