Visva Bharati registrar leaves office after 84 hours; students continue sit-in

KOLKATA: Visva Bharati registrar Asish Agarwal left his office in the university campus at Santiniketan after 84 hours in the presence of policemen even as a section of students continued their sit-in at the campus for over 96 hours demanding the reopening of hostels which are closed since the lockdown.

The registrar left his office late on Thursday night after Calcutta High Court asked the police to ensure that the officers of the central university are not obstructed from performing their duty or the registrar from moving freely in Shantiniketan by the students.

The official said the personnel from the local police station left the campus after the registrar went to his official residence and only Visva Bharati security personnel, who regularly man the gates and are in charge of security, are present as usual. SFI leader in the university, Somnath Sow said the students had urged the registrar to leave the office on Tuesday morning itself when the students began their sit-in but he had refused and stayed put in his chamber. The students, he said, vacated his office and camped outside on the lawn.

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"How can we leave till our friends get hostel accomodations? Since the university is not responsive to our needs, we prefer to stay in the open inside the campus. We are not creating any law and order situation. It is our right to be in the campus as students." Sow told PTI. He said the sit-in by the students, which had begun on last March 1 at around 11 am first inside the chamber of the registrar in the central office building and then outside the main building in the open lawn from the next day, will continue indefinitely till the hostels are reopened.

Asked if the continuation of the sit-in inside the campus was a violation of the high court order, Sow said "We are not obstructing any official. We are not disrupting academic activities. We are forced to stay in the open as the university has not been able to open any of the 15 hostels, which are under lock and key since March 16, 2020. The state and the Centre have already allowed the respective college and university authorities to open the hostels after due precautions." "Why should Visva Bharati be not responsive to the needs of students who have come from outside? It is dithering on reopening hostels when offline classes are already on," he asked.

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The students have also demanded that the coming semester exams be conducted on the online mode in undergraduate and postgraduate levels since the classes were held online for the past two years. The university official said the executive council will deliberate on the issues on an urgent basis and take appropriate decision.