Agitating Presidency students urge Registrar to end deadlock

Agitating students of Presidency University on Wednesday urged Registrar Debojyoti Konar to end the impasse over their demand to be shifted to the under-renovation Hindu Hostel.

The agitation, marked by an indefinite fast by a section of the students, entered the 10th day on Wednesday.

The protesters asked Konar to respond in writing to their charter of demands, which include setting up of a committee comprising boarders for supervising the hostel renovation work, allowing boarders to stay in three rooms in the campus and dissolving the probe panel formed to find out those responsible for closure of the main gate in September.

The Registrar called on the students to withdraw the agitation, and assured that the process to shift them to two wards of Hindu Hostel will be facilitated once the PWD gave its clearance by November 15.

"We will not stop the Registrar from leaving. We only wish he takes the initiative to resolve the issue at the earliest," Subho Biswas, one of the protesting students, told PTI, as he and his fellow mates sat outside Konar's office.

Biswas said a fasting student fell sick on Wednesday evening due to severe exhaustion, and had to be admitted to a nearby hospital.

"We want the university authorities to bear the cost of medical treatment of the fasting students," he said.

A PWD team will come to the campus on Thursday and discuss the issue of hostel renovation with the agitating students, a university official said.

The PWD had on Friday informed the university authorities that two wards of the hostel would be ready by November 15.

The indefinite fast by students began at the campus portico from 9 pm on October 1.

The Hindu Hostel had been shut down for repairs on July 29, 2015 and 150 boarders were shifted to a rented accommodation at New Town.