Jadavpur unrest: Varsity mulls restructuring complaints panel

Authorities at Jadavpur University, embroiled in a controversy, are now considering restructuring the internal complaints committee probing the alleged molestation of a woman student.

The development comes close on the heels of a phase-wise referendum where a vast majority of students (more than 95 percent) of the university's Arts stream voted for the removal of vice chancellor Abhijit Chakrabarti.

Varsity registrar Pradip Ghosh told IANS Monday: "We have not done it yet, but we are considering restructuring the committee."

The students have been clamouring for the removal of Chakrabarti since Sep 17 when the university authorities allegedly ordered a police crackdown to break up a sit-in of students who were demanding an independent investigation into the purported molestation of a female student inside a hostel.

In the first phase of the referendum comprising Arts students, as many as 2,602 students cast their votes. The results were declared Friday evening. The second leg which includes the science and engineering departments will begin Nov 11.

The students voted on five issues -- whether the vice chancellor should resign or not, whether the students want a judicial probe into the alleged molestation, whether there should be a judicial probe into the alleged police crackdown, whether they were okay with the setting up of police pickets and mandatory display of identity cards and whether the complaints committee should be restructured.

Thousands of agitating students and several faculty members led a massive rally Sep 19 in Kolkata, demanding Chakrabarti's removal and decrying police atrocities.

The incident had a ripple effect across the country with students and alumni holding smaller protest marches in Delhi and Mumbai. The Kolkata diaspora and university alumni expressed solidarity through social networking websites.

Amid the raging clamour for his removal, Chakrabarti, who was the interim vice chancellor, was last month given full-time responsibility by West Bengal Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi, the ex-officio chancellor of the university.

Two university students and a former student have been arrested in connection with the alleged molestation.