Students of G. B. Pant Government Engineering College in Okhla here, who have been on a protest since 44 days demanding a campus, have decided to boycott the municipal elections on Sunday.
On Thursday, the Congress extended support to the students with party vice-president Rahul Gandhi visiting Joshil K. Abraham, an Assistant Professor who is on the 16th day of a hunger fast, at AIIMS.
Mr. Gandhi has promised to take up the issue with the government and get back to the students if the matter is not resolved. The students have also found support from Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, Sitaram Yechury and Yogendra Yadav, all of whom have promised to speak to Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.
March on April 21
They now plan to organise a candle light march at Jantar Mantar on April 21.
Mr. Abraham said that a committee formed by the Delhi government had met him and requested him to end his fast. They even threatened to take action if he continued, he said.
“I told them that I do not fear any action since I am fighting for the basic rights of my students. I spoke to them about the corruption in land allotment and the information that we have accessed via RTI applications. The committee accepted that there were a lot of problems in the construction of Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology-Delhi (IIIT-D),” added Mr. Abraham.
The students, meanwhile, said that a civil writ petition argued by advocate Prashant Bhushan will be submitted to the Delhi High Court on April 21. Also, the students plan to file a criminal petition with regard to the alleged corruption.
Demand for campus
The students have been demanding that a campus be build on 20 acres of land, which will include a hostel building, a sports block, an academic block, faculty residence, an auditorium and a playground. “The land that was supposed to be used for G.B Pant College has been taken over for construction of IIIT-D. Our college is still functioning from the erstwhile hostel building of G.B. Pant Polytechnic,” said the students.
