The buzz is back at Dal Lake, Chenab, Jhelum and Indus, hostels of the National Institute of Technology (NIT), Srinagar, named after the rivers of Jammu and Kashmir.
Around 70 per cent of the outstation students are back, after leaving the campus over the bad blood that erupted during a cricket match between India and West Indies on March 31.
And now these students are playing cricket with the local people. It’s a sunny Saturday and Mujtahid Ahmad, a local student from Kashmir’s volatile Sopore area pursuing B.Tech. in Information Technology, is watching the Jhelum Premier League, a cricket tournament being organised by the Jhelum Hostel, which houses 300 local and outstation students. Some 10 teams are playing.
“The cricket controversy is a thing of the past. All students are back in our hostel. It is like old times. There is no friction,” he told The Hindu .
The match between India and West Indies became a source of a wedge between local and outstation students. Clashes between the students and the police, which left 60 students injured, snowballed into a major debate on nationalism, followed by a mass exit of outstation students to their hometowns.
With normality limping back to the campus, Aparna Rai, a student from Banaras, has returned for the minor examination, starting the first week of May. She dismisses having any sense of insecurity or threat.
With exams starting on May 5, at least 911 students out of the 1,441 who left after the clashes had returned to the campus by Friday evening.
“We have offered a flexible examination schedule to outstation students. Those who are yet to come are being reached out to. On a written request from the students, the papers will be checked by outsiders to rule out any unfair marking,” NIT Registrar Fayaz Ahmad Mir told The Hindu .
Akash Priyadharshini, a student who underwent an implant after fracturing his arm during the police action, has been offered travel and accommodation expenses by the NIT.
However, there are many students who complain about non-fulfilment of their demands.
“Geyser and Wi-Fi were not our demands. The administration is silent on most demands put forth by us like having 50 per cent staff from outside,” said an M.Tech. student, requesting anonymity.
NIT Director Rajat Gupta said a preliminary report on the incident had been submitted and the final report was expected by May 15.
