Almost a month into the ongoing impasse between the students of the city’s Jadavpur University and its Vice-Chancellor Abhijit Chakraborty, students will be holding a 24-hour hunger strike to mark completion of one month of their protests.
Students will be holding a convention on Thursday, following which they will start a 24-hour strike, demanding the Vice-Chancellor's resignation.
Convention“October 16 marks one month of our protest, ever since we were attacked by the police for allegedly gheraoing the Vice-Chancellor. The convention in the morning will be attended by students, teachers, ex-students and students’ parents. We will be holding a 24-hour hunger strike from 6 p.m. on Thursday till 6 p.m. on Friday,” general secretary of the Faculty of Engineering and Technology Students’ Union Chiranjit Ghosh said.
The students will be holding a general body meeting on Friday to decide on the next course of action, Mr. Ghosh said and added that the ongoing academic strike would also continue.
V-C still missingMr. Chakraborty, however, continued to stay away from the University campus, ever since the University reopened after the Durga Puja vacations. Although he visited the Higher Education Council on Wednesday, he chose to stay away from the University campus.
Members of the Jadavpur University Teachers’ Association (JUTA) will be holding a protest march within the campus on Thursday, JUTA joint secretary Nandini Mukherjee said.
Impartial probe“We still stick by our earlier stand of seeking Mr. Chakroborty’s resignation for calling in police inside the campus to attack the students and demand an impartial probe into the incident. We also demand a detailed inquiry into the molestation of a student on August 28 within the campus,” Ms. Mukherjee said.
While JUTA members might not be participating in the students’ hunger strike on Thursday, they fully support the movement, Ms. Mukherjee said. The JUTA will be organising a convention on October 21.
