SHILLONG, Nov 8: Concerned over the ongoing protests at NEHU, the state government has decided to call Vice Chancellor Prof Prabha Shankar Shukla next week to take stock of the situation.
The NEHUSU and the KSU NEHU unit had on Thursday locked the main gates of the university and burnt the effigies of the VC, Registrar Colonel (retd) Omkar Singh and Deputy Registrar Amit Gupta.
Education Minister Rakkam Sangma told The Shillong Times on Friday that the state government is concerned about the situation and also about the students who have their under graduate exams next week.
He said the state government has a limited role in the functioning of the university but it will still try its best to resolve the stalemate. “We will have a meeting with the VC and the NEHU authorities. We can also meet the students concerned to try and resolve the matter,” Sangma said.
Stating that the situation in NEHU will be communicated to the Ministry of Education, he appealed to the agitating students “not to go out of control”.
The two protesting student bodies rejected the VC’s request to call off their stir and his proposal to form a committee to look into the demand for the removal of the registrar and the deputy registrar.
Meanwhile, the Congress has chosen to maintain distance from the NEHU impasse, stating that the intervention of political parties will turn the varsity into a battleground.
“We should not be involved because if the Congress, the BJP and other parties go, it will become a battlefield of politicians which is not good for the future of NEHU,” said state Congress chief Vincent H Pala.
Stating that he received requests to intervene, Pala said, “I don’t want the entry of politics into the institution. We have National Students’ Union. If they feel, they may intervene.”
He said when he was serving as the Shillong MP, members of organisations from NEHU came to him but he never entertained them as he did not want politicians to be involved in the day-to-day life and management of the university.
“If I speak against NEHU in the Parliament, it will affect the integrity of the management and the image of the institution. That is why, I never talk publicly about NEHU but whenever they come and meet me, I would rather write letters to the ministers and meet them,” Pala said.
The indefinite hunger strike by the students entered the fourth day on Friday.
