Classes, exams back at JU; officials speak to cops on students’ legal issues
Times of India | 11 March 2025
123 Kolkata: After a week-long impasse on the campus, students across departments attended classes and appeared for the exams on Monday.
The undergraduate engineering students called for an examination boycott in protest after a first-year student, Indranuj Roy, was injured after allegedly coming under the education minister's car on March 1.
Following a general body meeting on Saturday, the engineering students of undergraduate and postgraduate departments appeared for the exams on Monday. Manas Bhowmik, a professor of the pharmacy dept, said, "Today, we had normal classes and the students appeared for exams as per schedule."
Bijay Kumar Das, head of the international relations dept, said, "Students of different semesters attended classes even though there was chaos on the ground floor. However, some students requested not to be marked for attendance."
Among 16 departments in engineering, UG and PG students of 13 depts boycotted two exams, while students of a few depts, including mechanical, boycotted three exams. Initially, it was decided that individual depts would place rescheduled dates of exams they missed to the controller section to take the final call.
Following the students' demand, university authorities, including pro-VC Amitava Datta and joint registrar Sanjay Gopal Sarkar, met two student representatives each from different organisations, including SFI, AIDSO, AISA, RSF, and DSF. The meeting started at 3 pm. Authorities received deputations from each organisation and considered their demands.
The demands included providing legal help to students against whom FIRs were lodged, calling an emergency meeting and immediate varsity action to stop police harassment. . The university considered the demands and spoke to police personnel to solve the legal issues against students. Kazi Masum, the chancellor's nominee, wrote a letter to the university and the chancellor to call the meeting to resolve recent issues.
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