Students' agitation: JU Pro-V-C confined in office for 24 hrs

A section of agitating Jadavpur University students have confined Pro-Vice-Chancellor Pradip Kumar Ghosh in his office for over 24 hours, university sources said Saturday.

Members of the Arts Faculty Students' Union (AFSU), Science Faculty Students Union (SFSU) and Faculty of Engineering and Technology Students' Union (FETSU) have been camping outside Ghosh's chamber since Friday evening over a series of demands.

They have been demanding punishment of the Trinamool Congress-sheltered students who had allegedly been threatening them of stopping "all kinds of democratic activities" inside the university campus.

The unions have demanded the university authorities to enumerate the steps taken to raise the issue with the higher education department and what headway has been made so far.

"We will not withdraw the sit-in till we get concrete and definite assurances on these two issues," AFSU member Debraj Debnath told PTI.

Education minister Partha Chatterjee said Saturday that the students should realise that an election cannot be held in an institution when the Lok Sabha polls are round the corner and the government cannot take a decision on it at this juncture.

To this, Debnath said "We had been waiting for a decision on this issue for long. This government has taken away all our democratic rights in the past seven years".

The three unions have been on a sit-in demonstration since February 19 after a scuffle broke out between two groups of students, who wanted to approach VC Suranjan Das with their demands after the university's Executive Council meeting.

While the AFSU and FETSU wanted to place their demands for facilitating election, the Trinamool Chhatra Parishad (TMCP) alleged unlawful activities in the campus on that day.

Das, who fell on the ground during the scuffle, had to be admitted to a hospital.

Das had said that he felt "insulted and humiliated" and was physically heckled by the students which had never happened to him in the past.

The All Bengal University Teachers' Association (ABUTA), JU chapter, in a meeting Friday supported the demand of students for holding student union polls but condemned the heckling of the VC.