Students protest with the effigy of vice-chancellor K.K.Deka on the university premises on Thursday. Picture by Eastern Projections

Dibrugarh, Aug. 26: The unrest in Dibrugarh University (DU) since Tuesday took a turn for the worse today with both the students and authorities sticking to their respective grounds on the fee hike issue and the “vice-chancellor ouster cry” getting shriller.

Students hoisted black flags in all the departments of the campus, the vice-chancellor’s office and the main administrative block since early morning in protest against the “arrogant” attitude of the authorities on the issue.

The students also wore black badges and organised a demonstration in front of the locked vice-chancellor’s office in clear defiance of prohibitory orders issued by the Dibrugarh district administration under Section 144 CrPc.

Carrying placards, banners and festoons, the students also shouted slogans demanding the ouster of university vice-chancellor Kandarpa Kumar Deka.

“Initially, our demand was an immediate rollback of the hiked fee structure. But now the ouster of the arrogant VC is our main demand. We will not stop our agitation and are prepared to face bullets,” said Arindam Buragohain, the general secretary of the Dibrugarh University Post- Graduate Students Union (DUPGSU).

The students are agitating on the fee hike issue under the leadership of the union and All Assam Students’ Union.

As the VC entered the main administrative building today, the students laid siege to it, besides blocking the main entrance to the building.

The students, after an hour of demonstration, took out a mock funeral procession on the campus.

“The vice-chancellor had shown total disrespect towards the genuine demands of the students. The VC had even asked the administration and police to forcefully thwart our agitation. Therefore, we had no other option. We demand that a new VC be appointed at DU,” Buragohain said.

The protesters also launched a signature campaign among the students.

“We will submit the signatures along with a memorandum to the Governor and chancellor J.B. Patnaik demanding immediate removal of the vice-chancellor and appointment of a new VC who will be sympathetic to our demands, Kasturi Nath, president-in-charge of the DUPGSU, said.

The district administration, which had issued prohibitory orders on Wednesday, apparently did not impose them in the first half of the day. However, in the afternoon, a huge police contingent, led by additional SP (headquarters), Debashish Sarma, entered the campus and urged students to disperse.

The students, till the filing of this report, were locked in talks with Dibrugarh additional DC Bandana Dutta Tamuli and magistrate Sarangapani Sarma.

When contacted over phone, the vice-chancellor said the university administration was open to holding discussions on the fee hike. “All issues can be settled through discussions only. However, if the students remain arrogant, we, too, will be compelled to initiate harsher action,” he said.

The All Assam Muttock Yuba Chatra Sanmelan, Tai-Ahom Yuba Parishad, All Assam Tea Tribes Students’ Association, All Koch-Rajbongshi Students’ Union, Sonowal-Kachari Students’ Union, All Deori Students’ Union and Asom Jatiyatabadi Yuba Parishad have extended support to the agitation. They have even called a 12-hour Dibrugarh district bandh on August 31 on the issue.

The North East Students Organisation, too, has extended support to the agitation. NESO secretary general Gumjum Haider told reporters that the university would have to withdraw the hiked fee structure.