VBU's agriculture students protest on campus for internal reservation, stop counselling for the day

The students went inside the Central Library where the counselling was going on and stopped the procedure for the day. The students said that they have written to the authorities multiple times
The students during the protest (Pic:Edexlive)
The students during the protest (Pic:Edexlive)

West Bengal's Visva Bharati University is in the news for yet another students' protest. This time it's the agriculture students of the university who are now applying for a postgraduation at the same varsity. The students are on an indefinite sit-in demanding reservation for themselves when applying for postgraduation. The protest that started in front of the administrative buildings — VC's office, Central Library and the Central Office — soon trickled in where the counselling process was going on. The students stopped the counselling for the day.

The students went inside the Central Library where the counselling was going on and stopped the procedure for the day. The students said that they have written to the authorities multiple times before they resorted to a protest. But why do they want reservations in the first place? The students said that the two other agriculture universities – Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya (BCKV) and Uttar Banga Krishi Viswavidyalaya (UBKV) have implemented systems that favour the admission of their own UG-passed students into their PG courses and this puts them in a fix. "We demand a 100 per cent reservation for our seats for internal candidates, as the number of seats is already very low and we won't get the fair chance to pursue higher education anywhere else if even those seats are taken away from us," said the students and added that they want the authorities to meet them and discuss the issue as soon as they can.

Students, in their letter, said that the internal quotas or reservations at other universities put them at a disadvantage. But this wouldn't be the case if the varsity implemented an internal quota like the other two universities. "At BCKV, they have implemented a system where 80 per cent of the non-ICAR seats are being reserved for their internal students and we are having to compete only for the rest 20 per cent. At UBKV, all the internal students competing for the seats receive a 10 per cent grace marking on their overall score, rendering us at a clear disadvantage," said the students and added that while Visva Bharati does have internal quotas for some Bhavanas (centres), there's no such provision for the students of the Palli Siksha Bhavana (Institute of Agriculture) yet.

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