Hunger-strike on, JU authorities seek advisory from Chancellor

Kolkata: Jadavpur University authority has sought the opinion of Chancellor Keshari Nath Tripathi to overcome the impasse at the university which has been continuing since Wednesday after it announced the scrapping of admission test in six subjects of Humanities in the undergraduate level.

The students who had started agitating soon after the decision, intensified their movement on Friday night with 20 of them from the Arts faculty resorting to hunger-strike protesting against the decision of scrapping the admission test. They threatened to intensify their agitation if the university did not call an emergency Executive Committee (EC) meeting by Sunday afternoon.

"We have submitted a detailed report on the current situation existing in the varsity to the Governor who also happens to be the Chancellor of the university. The Vice-Chancellor and the Pro Vice-Chancellor met the Governor who had sought a detailed report regarding the matter. We are waiting for his reply," Registrar Chiranjib Bandyopadhyay added.

It may be mentioned that a deputation on behalf of the Arts faculty was also forwarded by the university along with their detailed report to the Chancellor.

A senior official of the university said that the decision of doing away with the admission test for this year was ratified by the EC. "In order to modify the decision of the EC, the advice of the Chancellor is mandatory. So unless we get his nod in this regard, we cannot modify the EC's resolution. We are hopeful of receiving a response by Monday and we will immediately call the EC meeting," the official said.

Meanwhile, a section of teachers of the English, Comparative Literature and Bengali departments has written to the university authorities stating that they will not be part of the admission process. The Jadavpur University Teachers' Association (JUTA) has endorsed their decision. "We honour the sentiment of any teacher who wants to dissociate himself/herself from the admission process," said JUTA president Keshab Bhattacharya.

JUTA has also sought an appointment from the Chancellor in the wake of the stalemate. The Jadavpur University, after the EC meeting on Wednesday, had announced that admission for this year will be on the basis of marks in Higher Secondary or equivalent examination and there will be no admission tests. Following this, the students of Humanities have begun agitating.

V-C Suranjan Das also met state Education minister Partha Chatterjee on Friday and said that he found it very difficult to run the administration in the given situation.