On day 16 of hunger strike, NEHU students in Meghalaya vow to continue stir

Shillong, Nov 20 (IANS) The indefinite hunger strike by the students of North Eastern Hill University (NEHU) entered the 16th day on Wednesday, and the protesters vowed to continue the stir even as a two-member inquiry committee, set up by the Union Education Ministry, will arrive here in a day or two.

The students of NEHU, the northeast's oldest Central varsity in Shillong, remained firm on their demand to remove “incompetent” Vice Chancellor Prabha Shankar Shukla and “illegally" appointed top officials, including Registrar Col Omkar Singh (Retd) and Deputy Registrar Amit Gupta.

The leaders of the North Eastern Hill University Students Union (NEHUSU), which has been spearheading the agitation since November 5, held meetings on Tuesday and Wednesday and decided to continue their agitation.

The NEHUSU meetings were held after Meghalaya Chief Secretary Donald P. Wahlang requested the students to suspend their protest pending the completion of the inquiry instituted by the Union Ministry of Education.

The Ministry of Education, earlier, formed the two-member inquiry committee headed by former University Grants Commission (UGC) Chairman Prof D. P. Singh, with former Assam University Vice Chancellor Prof Dilip Chandra Nath as the member.

The Ministry has asked the committee to investigate the allegations of the students and others and submit recommendations within 15 days.

Meghalaya Education Minister Rakkam Sangma said that Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma had already talked with Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on the stalemate in NEHU and the UGC has constituted a committee to look into the details of the issues.

Urging the students to call off their hunger strike, Rakkam Sangma expressed concern over the deteriorating health of the agitating students.

The strike would also affect their academic activities, the minister said.

A host of dignitaries and politicians met the agitating students on the NEHU campus and talked with the students.

Earlier Meghalaya Governor and the NEHU’s Chief Rector Chandrashekhar H. Vijayashankar, Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma appealed to the agitating students to call off their protest.

The NEHU students also wrote a letter to President Droupadi Murmu detailing the situation in the varsity and sought her intervention to resolve the ongoing imbroglio.

Before going on leave last week, VC Shukla on several occasions, urged the students to call off their agitation and hold talks so that normal academic activities could be resumed in the university.

NEHUSU General Secretary Toniho S. Kharsati told the media that they are not happy with the clarification of the VC about their demands.

He also said they would continue with their agitation until and unless their demands were accepted by the authorities.

Due to the incompetence of all top varsity officials, including the VC, the NEHU’s rank has slipped 21 points to 101 in the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) ranking, Kharsati claimed.

He said that the students demanded that all "incompetent" top officials along with those "illegally" appointed must be removed for the interest of the students and the varsity.

"Since the incumbent VC took charge of the University in 2021, no important academic development has taken place, and instead rankings of the important institution have been going down. Incompetent people were appointed in the top position," he said.

The influential North East Students' Organisation (NESO), an apex body of eight students' organisations representing seven NE states, Khasi Students Union’s NEHU unit and the Meghalaya Tribal Teachers' Association are also supporting the protest.

--IANS

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