DU students protest for reopening of campus, jumped over heavily policed barricades to enter varsity

Meanwhile, SFI is not the only outfit protesting against DU authorities. The BJP-affiliated Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad is calling for reopening as well
Scenes from the protest on February 7 | Pic: Specially arranged
Scenes from the protest on February 7 | Pic: Specially arranged

As college and school campuses across the country have started reopening, the students of Delhi University are getting impatient as there is no official word from the varsity regarding reopening. Several student outfits took to the streets, with hundreds of boots on the ground, protesting outside the Vice-Chancellor's office. 

There are images of students climbing over the barricades, struggling to cross over the heavily guarded gates of the varsity that the Delhi police watched over. There are reports that one BA student even got injured to a point that he had to be given medical attention, however, it could not be independently verified.

The call for a protest was taken by the Students' Federation of India. The SFI Delhi President Sumit Kataria was mildly injured while trying to climb over the barricades, "We managed to get inside and are now sitting outside the VC office. Our protest will continue here." He said that while the Delhi police manhandled the students, no one lathi-charged.

"The administration has been saying that they will bring out the reopening notice soon but that has not been happening. Other universities, such as Ambedkar University, have already brought out reopening notice," Kataria said. The student representatives are awaiting a meeting with the VC to hand over a copy of the memorandum where they are demanding reopening of the campus. It was only a few days ago that the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) had issued guidelines regarding the reopening of schools and colleges.

Meanwhile, SFI is not the only outfit protesting against DU authorities. The BJP-affiliated Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad released a statement on February 6 stating that they will "organise a massive movement for the reopening of Delhi University." According to the ABVP statement, the outfit has promised to hold a full day sit-in protest inside the south campus of DU on February 8 and a day-long demonstration outside the Academic Council meeting in the north campus on February 9.

ABVP's National Media Convener and State Secretary Sidharth Yadav said, "The guidelines regarding the opening of schools-colleges of DDMA have been issued and now, Delhi University should also decide to open the campus immediately. Delhi University has been closed for almost two years and as a result, the standard of education has gone down. We are going to protest against this through multiple mediums from Monday so that the university administration can realise and the future of the students can be saved. ABVP will not settle for anything other than opening the campus immediately."
 

Related Stories

No stories found.
logo
EdexLive
www.edexlive.com