Students to boycott classes till Oct 17

“On October 16, exactly a month after the V-C unleashed police on protesting students, we will carry out a night-long protest in the form of cultural activities,” said Chiranjeet Ghosh, general secretary, Faculty of Engineering and Technology Students’ Union (FETSU), after the general body meeting of protesting students on Monday.

He said over 3,000 students of JU and other educational institutions are expected to join the movement on October 16.

Another students’ group, the Arts Faculty Students Union (AFSU), has also announced boycott of classes till October 15.

“We have not forced any student to stay away from the classes, but have requested them to do so till October 15 when we will have another general body meeting when a final decision would be taken,” he said. He said that some students had attended classes but they did not register their attendance.

Amidst protests and rallies since morning, the university issued a circular notifying students and teachers that the protests were in violation of the HC order. The V-C, however, did not attend office.

Members of Jadavpur University Teachers Association (JUTA) met Education Minister Partha Chatterjee on Monday seeking his intervention to end the ongoing stalemate. They however, returned disappointed.

“There was no fruitful outcome from the meeting. The minister wanted us to take an initiative to restore normalcy in the university but we said that it was the V-C who had caused the abnormal situation and therefore the V-C should take the initiative. We said that if he stepped down, the matter would be resolved easily. But Chatterjee said it was not possible,” said Nilanjana Ghosh, general secretary, JUTA.

She said that the minister, however, had admitted that police should not have been allowed to enter the campus on September 16.