MINISTER SETS JU TALKS DATE 

Calcutta, June 9 :     Bowing to pressure from the agitating teachers of Jadavpur University, the state government has finally decided to step in. State higher education minister Satyasadhan Chakraborty will meet leaders of Jadavpur University Teachers' Association (JUTA) on June 16 to talk things over. The minister sent a letter to Tarun Naskar, JUTA general secretary, on Friday, informing him about the meeting. Chakraborty had last met JUTA representatives on December 1, last year. The state government has now shifted from its earlier stand that it would not negotiate with JUTA till the teachers resumed their examination duties. "We have written six letters since March to the higher education minister, seeking appointments," said Naskar. He said the future course of agitation will be decided after the June 16 meeting. "But the proposed programmes of the JUTA, including a convention on June 19 and mass hunger-strike by teachers on June 23 have not been changed in the wake of today's development," Naskar added. The JUTA began an indefinite work-to-rule movement in March protesting the failure of the state government to respond to their demands. All examinations except that of final-year students have been postponed indefinitely. Midnapore jail stir Behind bars at the Midnapore central jail for more than 125 days, 192 Bangladeshi nationals, including 102 women and 22 children, went on a hungerstrike on Friday protesting police negligence. The Bangladeshi nationals had entered West Bengal through the Bangaon border and were stopped by the police in Panskura from where they were trying to board a Mumbai-bound train on January 22 in search of jobs, Manoj Chowdhury, superintendent of Midnapore central jail, said. They have been in jail since then. According to them, the police have failed to take up the matter of their "pushback" with the Border Security Force and the Bangladesh Rifles. One of the prisoners, a young woman who had to be hospitalised, said: "We don't have a single paisa. How can I save my ailing child unless we are allowed to return home?" Midnapore SP Gourav Dutta said, "We have already processed the papers. But it will take some time as BSF and BDR are to be taken into consideration."