Rohtak: 2 months on, protesting students won't give up

Rohtak, August 29

Students of the Faculty of Film and Television at Pt Lakhmi Chand State University of Performing and Visual Arts (PLC SUPVA) have been staging a protest demonstration to press for the fulfillment of their demands for the past two months.

The students’ dharna, which began on the university campus on June 28, was shifted outside the campus last week. Their main demands include the provision of adequate resources, faculty, infrastructure and equipment, besides amendment in syllabus. “Our academic sessions are getting prolonged by several months due to the non-provision of the requisite resources. We have been flagging our concerns for a long time, but these are not being addressed. As many as 94 students of our faculty have been expelled by the university authorities,” said protesting students.

The university authorities maintain that the issues raised by the students are being looked into and acted upon, but the protesters refuse to wait for the due official procedure to be followed.

“Certain demands of the students are genuine. We have agreed to present the issues raised by them before the statutory bodies such as the board of studies and executive council and get the desired provisions/amendments made. However, they are adamant on instant fulfilment of their demands, which is not practicable,” said PLC SUPVA Vice-Chancellor Gajendra Chauhan.

Questioned about the expulsion of the students, he stated that the students who had not attended their classes for more than two weeks had been expelled as per the rules.

“We are ready to re-admit the expelled students, but they refuse to follow the laid down procedure,” he maintained “It seems that the students are misguided by some vested interests. It is unfortunate that we are concerned about their future, but they are acting in a rigid and unreasonable manner,” stated the VC.