Over 500 students of Uttarakhand’s National Institute of Technology (NIT) in Srinagar vacated the campus on Tuesday. The students have been demanding a permanent campus building of NIT. The students have threatened that they would boycott the lectures until the “unsafe” campus is shifted from its present location along NH-58 in Srinagar Garhwal town.
More than 900 students have been on an indefinite strike since October 4 in support of their demand for a permanent campus. While half of the students have already left, the rest are awaiting transport to their native places.
The students began their strike after Neelam Meena, in the third year of her B.Tech course, was hit, becoming the third NITUK student to have met with an accident on NH-58 this year.
“I will seek a response from the NIT administration regarding the issue. We have already provided land to the NIT in Sumari area and the permanent campus should be built there only,” minister of state for higher education Dhan Singh Rawat said, according to TOI.
The students have accused the state government of having a callous approach towards their demand for a permanent campus and better infrastructure. The students have also sent a memorandum to the President Ram Nath Kovind, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, state chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat, governor Baby Rani Maurya, the HRD ministry and other authorities concerned.
“We are trying to convince the students to come back or they will stand to lose an academic year,” R B Patel, director-in-charge, NIT, Srinagar, said.
“To write their end-semester exams, pupils will need to have at least 75% attendance. We have also alerted their parents and trying our best to solve this issue. The Senate committee of the institute, which reviews academic activities of each department, will take a final call regarding disciplinary action on students who left the institute without informing authorities.”
“Nearly 90% BTech and MTech students have left the campus. Others will also likely to follow suit,” said Vikas Kumar, a fourth year BTech student at the institute, who is also the head of Council of Students Activity.
