Students meet Bengal governor over exam dates

A section of students of Calcutta University here on Friday met West Bengal Governor K.N. Tripathi and Election Commission officials following a protest march against the scheduling of final year exams of the three-year undergraduate courses amid the forthcoming assembly polls.

Bengal goes to the polls from April 4 and the rest of the days of the seven-phase elections span April 11, 17, 21 and 25 and May 5.

On Tuesday, the varsity announced that it would hold the BA/BSc/BCom Part III honours exam between April 1 and April 13.

Vice Chancellor Sugata Marjit had on Thursday affirmed the examination dates would not be changed.

In an online petition to Vice Chancellor Sugata Marjit and the Election Commission, the students said: "We have to face our final year examination within that volatile period. The first and foremost problem is that many outsider students stay here to continue their study in Calcutta University. It will be really difficult for them to handle their examination on one hand and vote on the other hand."

Urging the vice chancellor to postpone the entire third year examinations till after the voting process ends, the B.A/B.Sc/B.Com students demonstrated outside the varsity building at College Street campus with loud sloganeering on Thursday.

They had also laid siege at the vice chancellor's office during the day.

The vice chancellor later left the campus escorted by a group of non-teaching staff and students loyal to the ruling Trinamool Congress and returned home in a police jeep.

On Friday, two separate delegations of CU students met Tripathi and EC officials with the request to reschedule examinations.

The students said the campaigning by political parties will disrupt their preparation and the inadvertent transportation problem will only add to their woes.

Supporting their demands, the Students Federation of India submitted a deputation to the vice chancellor.

However, there was also a segment of students who urged the agitators on the Facebook platform 'postpone the third year honours exam of cu' to stop protesting and study instead.