Students gherao JU V-C, senior officials

Kolkata: Jadavpur University Vice-Chancellor Suranjan Das and senior administrative officials of the university have been gheraoed by a section of students for more than 24 hours with the students demanding immediate closure of the Centre for Disability Studies alleging misappropriation of funds on the part of those involved in running the centre.

"The way they are pressing for their demands is inhuman. How can the Centre for Disability Studies be closed overnight. There are so many centres running in the varsity. If the next day, they come up with the demand of closing another centre immediately, can we do that? Even when we have formed a committee to review the activities of all such centres, including the Centre for Disability Studies, they are agitating," said the Vice-Chancellor of the university Suranjan Das.

Pro Vice-Chancellor Pradip Ghosh, who also could not leave the campus due to the agitation of the students infront of Aurobinda Bhavan, the administrative building of the varsity, said five times in a month students prevent the administrative officials from leaving the campus.

"They placed their demand at the executive council meeting on Monday after the domicile issue was settled. We sought some time with a multi-member committee being formed to review activities of all 40 centres under the varsity and also the various schools in the varsity. But they remained adamant," Ghosh said.

According to Ghosh, the Centre has been running for many years so the varsity cannot take decisions overnight. He also questioned whether the protest by the students is democratic considering the way they have held senior officials and executive council members on the university campus during the night.

Manojit Mandal, co-ordinator of the centre and executive council member, said the project over which a section of students are agitating is translation of an authentic biography of Rabindranath Tagore from Bengali to English. "It has been approved by the university and classes have begun with four students only a week ago. Not an iota of Rs 25 lakh that has been allocated for the project by the state government has been spent. So, how they can allege misappropriation?" Mandal asked.

An agitating student Debraj Debnath said the project has nothing to do with disability studies. "We want reconstruction of the centre as the coordinators, including Mandal, are not experts in this respect. An executive council meeting should be convened immediately to discuss on single point agenda of restructuring the centre," he claimed.