The University of Delhi took to its official Twitter handle on Wednesday to state that a notice doing the rounds on social media that states that the varsity will open from September 20, is fake. DU has not yet decided on a date to reopen but might restart classes in a phased manner from the second week of September, said officials.
Acting Vice-Chancellor Dr PC Joshi told the media that the classes will start in a phased manner and only a few students will be asked to come back on campus first and once they "gain more confidence", the varsity will open its doors for others. "Our students are located all over India and we do not want to create a panic situation for them. We will reopen in a phased and careful manner so that no student is put in danger or inconvenienced. We will be reopening after discussions and in a systematic manner,” said Dr Joshi. “We will reopen for some students, then see the situation, when we gain more confidence, we will open up for more students,” he added. PhD and MPhil students have been coming to the campus, said Dr Joshi. But everything is in a controlled environment.
DU officials met on Wednesday to discuss reopening the campus and it is likely that classes for some students will resume from next week. But there has not been any official statement as of yet. At the same time, the students have been protesting and demanding that the campus be reopened for a long time now. Student activists of the All India Students' Association have even visited the Ministry of Education to enquire about this issue. "They told us that the Academic Council and the Executive Council of the university will decide these dates and the MoE has no role to play in it," said Madhurima, an AISA activist, after meeting the officials on Wednesday.