Tezpur University students on Sunday decided to boycott their end-term semester examinations on Monday and Tuesday, continuing their protest and pressing for the removal of the vice-chancellor.
The move comes a day after a central team held talks with students, teachers and non-teaching staff to resolve the protest that has left the university paralysed since
November 27.
The examinations are scheduled from December 8 to 16.
“The central team on Saturday urged us to wait till Tuesday for an announcement on our demands, but we will continue until concrete action is taken. As such, the student fraternity decided to boycott the end-term exams on Monday and Tuesday. We will decide on the remaining exams on Tuesday. The university fraternity is firm on our demands,” a student said.
Another student added that the central team from Delhi could not offer a concrete solution. “They could not convince us. Hence, our protest will continue,” he said.
The protesters remain firm on their demand to remove incumbent vice-chancellor (VC) Shambhu Nath Singh. He was last seen on campus on September 22, a day after the protest started, which escalated on November 27 due to “a lack of response” from the education ministry.
This is the second disruption to the end-term exams. They were initially scheduled to start on December 3 but were postponed due to the protest and rescheduled from December 8.
A three-member central team, led by Vineet Joshi, secretary to the department of hgher education, held nearly four hours of talks on Saturday but could not secure a breakthrough.
Students, teachers, and non-teaching staff remained firm on their demand to remove Prof Singh and conduct a high-level inquiry into allegations of corruption and mismanagement against him and his loyalists.
The situation turned tense after the marathon talks. Protesters blocked the university’s main gate, preventing the central team from leaving until some formal steps were announced to end the stand-off that began on September 21, when the administration continued regular classes and student council elections amid state mourning for singer-composer Zubeen Garg.
Zubeen died in Singapore on September 19.
The central team remained holed up in their vehicles for over two hours and left just before midnight, after Saumya Gupta, joint secretary of the department of higher education, shared handwritten minutes of the meeting with the Tezpur University United Forum (TUUF).
“The handwritten letter communicates that Prof Shambhu Nath Singh will no longer be in administrative power at Tezpur University. It also assured a time-bound enquiry of all allegations against him,” the TUUF said on Sunday.
Tezpur University also issued a statement announcing that Prof Dhruba Kumar Bhattacharyya, the senior-most faculty member, formally assumed charge as acting vice-chancellor from December 4.
“This action was taken in view of the long absence of Dr Shambhu Nath Singh, the non-functioning of the office of the vice-chancellor, and to restore normalcy on campus,” the university statement said.
The statement added that the department of higher education “is committed to initiate a strict and time-bound inquiry against Dr Singh and during the pendency of the inquiry, Dr Singh shall not be administering the university. It was further recorded and signed that till further decision, status quo be maintained i.e. Prof Bhattacharyya shall remain as acting vice-chancellor”.