Presidency suspends 3, warns 18 students over hostel row

Kolkata: Presidency University suspended three students for a period of six months and let go another 18 students after warning them. The students in question were found guilty by the enquiry committee of the university.

The committee was constituted in the wake of students putting the gate of the varsity under lock and key and preventing the vice-chancellor, registrar and other professors of the varsity from entering the university premises on September 10, while agitation over the handover of Hindu Hostel was going on at the university.

It may be mentioned that the enquiry committee had recommended punishment of one year suspension for three students and six months suspension for another 18. "The enquiry committee has recommended stricter action but we relaxed it to an extent for the benefit of the students. The 18 students who were allowed to go with a warning, have been clearly warned that we will be stricter against such conduct in future," said a senior official of the university.

The locking of gates by the students had also resulted in the university holding its convocation, scheduled on September 11, at the Nandan III auditorium. The honorary degrees along with honorary D Litt and DSc were conferred at the short half an hour programme and the degrees were later handed over to them personally. A section of students had blocked the main entrance of the university, demanding immediate accommodation in the adjacent Hindu hostel. They had been agitating demanding the handover of Hindu Hostel for more than a month, when the incident took place. State Education minister Partha Chatterjee had lashed out at the agitators and had said that they had inherited the legacy of raising slogans from the erstwhile Left rule in the state.