The long-continuing stir by the students of the National Institute for Visually Handicapped (NIVH) finally came to an end on Tuesday. The students started going to the classes. They said they were happy in receiving a written undertaking from the additional director regarding fulfilment of their demands. The organisation committee members of NIVH, including the additional director KVS Rao and additional principal Geetika Mathur, expressed the hope while addressing a press conference on Tuesday that the grievances of the students would be taken proper care of.
Addressing the media persons, Rao said, “We have accepted many of the students’ demands. On some of them, we cannot act as things are not in our brief. However, we found that many of the things the students raised have substances and there were flaws on the side of the officers running the institute. We have taken up 34 of their demands for consideration. Besides, we gave them a written undertaking as they demanded, assuring them of considering the demands and meeting them at the earliest. We have also formed four committees for studying the flaws in the functioning of the institute.”
Rao made it clear that acts like sexual harassment would not be tolerated and a grievance committee has been constituted. “The students are free to contact the members of the committee. Besides, a mess committee has been set up to address their complaints related to the mess. We have also installed a suggestion box which would help us to resolve the students’ complaints promptly. A cleanliness committee has also been constituted which would help maintaining the proper cleanliness of the campus. For security, we have decided to install CCTV cameras in every classroom,” he said.
Queried over the alleged molestation of students by some teachers and the suspension of the former director Anuradha Dalmiya, Rao said, “True the students raised these matters. But we can hardly do anything on them. The police are investigating the cases of alleged molestation. Besides, the suspension of the former director is for the ministry to decide. We have received a letter from the State Commission for the Protection of Child Rights (SCPCR) which states that some outsiders were involved in things and their intention was to damage the reputation of the institute. We also suspect the same. We are of the same view that some outsiders instigated the students to go for the stir they launched. We are alert,” Rao said.