Having thrown out of the college hostel, 150 students of Veterinary College under Birsa Agriculture University, have been sitting on dharna at Raj Bhawan, demanding Governor Droupadi Murmu to revoke the sine die imposed by Vice Chancellor, Parvinder Kaushal.
Students alleged that the VC and other officials of the University manhandled them, including girls, while they were protesting peacefully against the rollback in hiring norms for 70 plus jobs in 16 Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVK).
“We have literally been thrown out by announcing sine die in the hostel. We are trying to meet the Governor to revoke the order passed by the VC as we were sitting on strike for the last 4-5 days against the dictatorship of Dean AK Srivastava who recently replaced RC Prasad on the ground of not being able to handle the situation,” said Post Graduate student Sujit Kumar.
“Despite the assurance given by Principal Secretary to Governor SK Satpathy that he will look into the matter at his level to get the hostel open for students, nothing has been done so far,” said Kumar. He said that they will continue their dharna at Raj Bhawan as they have nowhere to go.
He said that a meeting was also held between the Principal Secretary and VC, but they had no idea about the outcome as Satpathy could not be contacted.
The dispute, Kumar said, started after they were deemed ineligible to apply for the post through a recent notification issued by the university administration.
“They are demanding removal of VC Parvinder Kaushal and Dean D.K. Srivastava, appointed recently and reinstate R.N. Prasad on the post,” said Kumar. Srivastava started threatening the students immediately after being appointed Dean of the college, he alleged.
Meanwhile, after making all efforts to convince students of National University of Study and Research in law (NUSRl) to withdraw the protest demanding administrative overhaul and better infrastructure in the institution, the police finally entered the university campus by breaking open the lock put by students and took over control over it.
Over 200 students of the University have been sitting on indefinite ‘dharna’ since Tuesday evening not allowing the faculty members to enter the Campus. A press release stuck at the university’s gate claimed that they have been forced to sit on an indefinite protest due to administrative apathy. Meanwhile, the NUSRl came up with a press communiqué citing works undertaken by the University administration after VC in Charge Gautam Chaudhary took over. The Communiqué states in detail about the works done towards infrastructure development, audit of funds and recruitment of faculty members,of professors, Associate Professors and Assistant Professors which were likely to conclude shortly.