JU authorities urge students to end hunger strike
Kolkata: Two of the 20 members of a students' union of Jadavpur University who are on a hunger strike, over the past four days, in protest against the new admission procedure, have been hospitalised today, varsity authorities said.
The authorities made a fresh appeal to them to withdraw the stir and called an emergency executive council meeting today.
Registrar Chiranjib Bhattacharya said two students have been admitted to hospital and the varsity was concerned about the health condition of others.
Accompanying the Registrar, Pro-VC Pradip Ghosh told the students, "I request all of you to withdraw the fast. We have already convened an emergency executive council meet to discuss the admission issue. The VC (Suranjan Das) and Chancellor (Keshari Nath Tripathi) have already requested you to withdraw the fast. Please do not endanger your lives."
Turning down their pleas, general secretary of Arts Faculty Students' Union Debraj Debnath said, "There is no question of withdrawing our fast till the EC scraps the marks only criteria for admission process and brings back the admission process."
Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi, who is also Chancellor of the university, had yesterday expressed concern over the health of the students.
Vice Chancellor Suranjan Das had also urged the agitating students to call off their hunger strike.
Debraj claimed that three students, including the assistant general secretary of the Arts Faculty Students'Union (AFSU) Ushashi, had to be hospitalised today but their condition was now stable.
The AFSU said four students, including AFSU chairperson Somashree, had to be admitted to hospital.
Around 20 members of the AFSU started a hunger strike on July 6, two days after the university announced that it would admit undergraduate students in English, comparative literature, Bengali, history, political science and philosophy on the basis of board marks, reversing its earlier decision to hold entrance tests
The All Bengal University Teachers' Association, JU chapter, in a letter urged the VC to end the impasse by taking the opinion of all the stakeholders and called for upholding the functional atutonomy of the institution.
The governor, in a letter to the university, had also said that while the EC usually takes decisions on different issues faced by the university, the VC was empowered to take certain decision on his own, in case of exigencies.
Jadavpur University has been embroiled in controversies since July 4, when the executive council announced its decision to scrap entrance tests for the six subjects.
An hour after the announcement, the students had gheraoed the VC and other members of the executive council to protest the move.
The gherao, which lasted for 30 hours, was followed by JUTA ceasework, class boycott and indefinite fast by AFSU members.
