Protesting students at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Madras have claimed victory as the institution's Director, V Kamakoti, has allegedly agreed to conduct a thorough investigation into their concerns. The enquiry will be carried out by a three-member external committee led by Dr Kannegi Packianathan, a former IAS officer from Tamil Nadu. This was mentioned in a document shared by the Joint Action Committee (JAC), a student group at IIT Madras.
The document mentioned that the director made several commitments to the protestors in response to demonstrations held on Tuesday, April 11 and Wednesday, April 13 nights.
“The director announced that an enquiry will be conducted by Dr Kannegi Packianathan, a retd IAS officer. However, the students pointed out that a single-person enquiry committee is not enough and there should be at least 3 members in the committee,” the statement shared by the JAC said.
The document also says they have been promised that there will be a student member in the enquiry committee to help with the proceedings and connect with the students. Moreover, complete protection from actions will be provided to any student who is willing to appear before the committee as well as the ones who attended the protest.
The document claims that the institution has also ensured that the recommendations and report will be published within 10 days of the formation of the enquiry committee. While addressing the protestors, the director also allegedly explained different steps taken by the administration to tackle suicide cases on the campus, including the launch of the new website behappy.iitm.ac.in.
The protests that ensued...
Over 500 students gathered at Gajendra Circle (GC), IIT Madras late on April 12, Wednesday night in order to protest against the authorities’ inaction against PhD scholar Sachin Kumar Jain’s suicide. Following the same, the director has also sent an e-mail addressing all the students saying that Sachin’s PhD scholar Dr Ashis Kumar Sen will be restrained from entering the laboratory and during this period, the Head of the Mechanical Engineering department will be in charge of the laboratory.
Sachin Kumar Jain, a PhD scholar in the Mechanical Engineering department from IIT Madras, died by suicide on March 31. There have been a series of protests following the suicide, which was the third suicide in IIT Madras in the last two months.
Students stressed that there is a mental health issue on the campus with a lack of counsellors and also pointed out the administration’s alleged indifference towards the issue.
