The SRFTI building

Calcutta, Aug. 27: The trouble simmering on the Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute (SRFTI) campus for some months has boiled over, with students going on an “indefinite strike” from Friday to protest alleged academic and financial irregularities.

They have decided to boycott classes till a governing council meeting is called and their grievances are addressed. Council members include officials from the information and broadcasting ministry, Film and Television Institute of India director Tripurari Saran, SRFTI chairman and filmmaker Basu Chatterjee and SRFTI director Abhay Srivastava, among others.

The students today wrote to officials in the I&B ministry and also members of the institute’s academic and governing councils. In their letters, “the concerned students of SRFTI” have stated that “severe mismanagement” and “gross irregularities in the basic running of the institute” have forced them to go on strike.

Among the issues raised are reduction of budgets of student projects, absence of a decision-making authority, lack of proper academic scheduling and planning, lack of transparency in financial matters, poor upkeep of equipment, acute staff shortage and lack of co-ordination between the academic and administrative wings.

“This crisis can be resolved through a dialogue. The students are probably thinking they can get what they want through the strike,” SRFTI director Abhay Srivastava said this evening.

Dismissing the charges, he said: “They (the students) have a particular project for which they wanted an enhancement of budget. But we have qualified staff members who think the amount is sufficient? Scheduling is not a problem at all. There is no problem regarding equipment either. SRFTI is the best-equipped film institute in eastern India.”

Around 100 students from all three batches of direction and screenplay writing, cinematography, editing and sound recording are on strike. “We have had a string of meetings with the institute’s director and faculty members but nothing has been done till now,” said Alka Singh, a third-year student of direction.