Kolkata: At the cost of V-C Suranjan Das and Pro V-C Pradip Ghosh announcing their resignation, the week-long impasse at Jadavpur University watered down on Tuesday, with the Executive Committee (EC) deciding to revert to holding admission tests for six Humanities subjects at the undergraduate level.
Majority of the students of the varsity had been agitating for the last few days, with it escalating to a hunger-strike since July 6. The students, however, have refused to withdraw their strike completely, without getting a clear picture of the modalities of the EC's decision.
A senior official of JU said on Tuesday that a certain percentage of marks in Higher Secondary or equivalent examination and a certain percentage of marks in the admission test will be taken into account before preparing the final merit list for admission.
Earlier in the day, five of the 20 students who were part of the hunger strike fell ill and had to be taken to a nearby private hospital for treatment. Hospital sources informed that their condition is now stable.
It may be mentioned that the V-C and Pro V-C had joined voices to urge the students to withdraw their hunger-strike.
Turning down their pleas, general secretary of Arts Faculty Students' Union Debraj Debnath had said: "There is no question of withdrawing our fast until the EC scraps the marks-only criteria for the admission process and brings back the admission tests."
The EC, the highest decision-making body of the varsity, has empowered the Registrar and Faculty of Arts Dean to decide on the modalities of the admission test, the dates of which are likely to be notified on Wednesday. The EC affirmed its faith in the teachers of the university and requested full cooperation from them in the admission process.
It may be mentioned that the faculty members of all the six departments had decided to stay away from the admission process in protest against the varsity's earlier decision to scrap tests on July 4.
The marathon EC meeting was held in two phases on Tuesday and lasted for nearly six hours.
The decision to hold the EC meeting was taken after a letter from Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi, the Chancellor of the varsity, reached Suranjan Das on Monday evening, urging the latter to take necessary steps as per the statute of the university to resolve the stalemate.