Kolkata: Jadavpur University Vice Chancellor Suranjan Das and other officials remained under gherao in the campus for the third day today by a section of the students demanding holding of union elections next month.
Das and other officials spent two consecutive nights under gherao. The agitators said they would not allow the VC, Registrar Pradip Ghosh and other officials to leave the office building till the authorities announced a date for the election.
"The VC has passed the ball to the Chancellor saying it depends on him. Now we will meet the Chancellor with Professor Bimal Roy. Till the time the matter is resolved our gherao will continue," the protesters said.
The higher education department had recently issued an advisory to the state-run university asking it not to hold elections to students' union in February to avoid any disturbance during exams of different boards.
Protesting this decision, a group of students of the university gheraoed Das and other- officials and have been sitting outside the office since Friday evening and shouting slogans and raising placards to press for their demands.
The students said they wanted the VC to notify on their behalf that elections would be held on time.
The VC said that a letter has already been sent to the office of Governor K N Tripathi, who is also the Chancellor of state universities.
"I think he is not in the town now. After he comes we will meet him. A letter has already been sent to his Secretary on the demands of the students. I hope to resolve the situation through negotiations," Das said.
State Education Minister Partha Chatterjee had said that the students were not concentrating on their upcoming exams and raising protests which the government does not support.
In 2014, Das's predecessor Abhijit Chakrabarti was gheraoed demanding a fresh probe panel in the alleged sexual harassment of a girl student. Fearing threat to life, he called police inside the campus which created a huge furore and Chakrabarti was forced to resign.
