BESU erupts again, students asked to vacate hostels

With the Bengal Engineering and Science University BESU again on the boil and clashes among student groups and the police continuing unabated, the university has suspended undergraduate classes and asked over 1,000 students to vacate their hostels.

With the Bengal Engineering and Science University BESU again on the boil and clashes among student groups and the police continuing unabated, the university has suspended undergraduate classes and asked over 1,000 students to vacate their hostels.

According to the police, Deputy Superintendent of Police Anjan Chakraborty, Howrah Town, and some students were injured on Thursday after a group of students attacked the police personnel in front of the main administrative building of the university. Eight students have been arrested in connection with the attack.

Earlier, sporadic clashes took place between the Independent Consolidation IC and the Students Federation of India SFI inside the university campus.

Meanwhile, a team of the National Board of Accreditation NBA of the All India Council of Technical Education AICTE, the statutory body of the universities and colleges providing

technical education, is expected to visit the university on Friday.

8220;We are not going to take any chances. Since the NBA team is expected in the university on Friday and clashes inside the campus are still on, we have decided to suspend all the undergraduate classes,8221; said registrar of the university Biman Bandopadhayay. Since classes have been suspended, the students will have to vacate their hostels, he added.

8220;We are not going to hide anything from the NBA. Accreditation is necessary for the students and if they do not cooperate with us then we cannot do anything to help them,8221; said a BESU official.

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8220;Whenever a small incident occurs in the campus, the university authorities hand over the matter to the police, instead of handling it themselves,8221; said Rajorshi Dutta, a fourth-year student and an IC supporter.

He added that such sporadic violence were common before students8217; union election. 8220;A group of SFI students tried to create problems in the campus by inciting students,8221; he alleged.

Subhasis Bhattacharjee, SFI secretary of Howrah, however, said that none of his supporters were involved in the violence and accused the IC for causing unrest inside the campus. He said the SFI has filed an FIR in the Shibpur police station against those who were involved in the violence.

This is the second time this year when the students are asked to vacate their hostels after violence erupted in the campus.