JU students hold sit-in within campus

Members of AFSU and FETSU today organised sit-in demonstration before the Executive Council (EC) meeting room of Jadavpur University.
The agitating students were protsting against certain provisions of the 'West Bengal Universities and Colleges (Administration and Regulation) Bill-2017' which will enable the government to have the power to prescribe rules and procedures for conducting students' body or union election.
Demanding the JU EC adopt a resolution describing the government's step as 'undemocratic' and 'unacceptable,' AFSU spokesperson Somasree said, "We will not withdraw our agitation till the EC meeting passes such a resolution."
The sit-in started at 2 pm as the EC meeting was in progress attended by around 15 senior university officials.

Vice Chancellor Prof Suranjan Das told the agitating students since the Bill has already been passed in the state assembly, the university can't adopt any such stand on its own.
As the students, numbering several hundreds, raised slogans "Jaan debo maan debo, union karar adhikar chhere debona", (we will give our lives, but not the right to do union) the VC again sat in talks with the students accompanied by the Deans of several departments but the impasse continued.

"We are not preventing any teacher to leave. But we will continue to sit-in before the Gandhi Bhavan building (where the EC meeting was being held). This fight is for restoring the democratic rights of students," a FETSU member said.

The sit-in began from around 2 pm.
"We support the stand of the students on principle," JU teacher Goutam Maity said.