Shillong, Nov 19: The ongoing agitation of the North-Eastern Hill University Students’ Union (NEHUSU) and NEHU unit of Khasi Students’ Union, which entered the 15th day on Tuesday, is set to continue after a meeting of the students on Tuesday evening to review their ongoing indefinite hunger strike ended inconclusively.
They met following a request from Chief Secretary Donald P Wahlang to suspend their protest pending the completion of the inquiry instituted by the Ministry of Education. The two student bodies are likely to meet again on Wednesday.
It was learnt that the agitating students are in no mood to call off their indefinite stir as their demand to remove Vice Chancellor Prof Prabha Shankar Shukla has remained unfulfilled.
“Things are the same even after 15 days of our hunger strike. There is no sign from the ministry that they are going to remove the VC,” NEHUSU general secretary Toniho S Kharsati said.
He said there is a lack of a political will to remove Prof Shukla.
“We are upset since we have no official communication either from the President of India, who is the Visitor of the university, and the Governor, who is our Chief Rector, on our grievances,” Kharsati said.
According to him, they are only hearing that the Governor will visit the university campus to meet the students. “But till now, there is no sign of the Governor visiting us,” he said.
Kharsati said they are not happy with the steps taken by the state government so far to pressure the Centre to remove the VC.
“We expect the state government to be more proactive. We are not surprised to see such lackadaisical attitude of the government. Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma had come to visit us as a concerned citizen and not as the head of the state,” the NEHUSU general secretary said.
Meanwhile, NEHU VC in-charge, Prof Nirmalendu Saha said the internal committee is still compiling the report and it is an exhaustive exercise. He said the report will be submitted to him on Wednesday.
“I will endorse the report only after studying it in detail. I will brief the students before we finally mail it to the ministry,” Prof Saha said.
Earlier, Wahlang had appealed to the agitating students to suspend their indefinite hunger strike.
“I have come here with the specific objective to request the students to suspend their agitation pending the completion of the inquiry,” Wahlang, who visited the agitating students at the NEHU campus along with DGP Idashisha Nongrang on Tuesday, told reporters.
Wahlang said he had a word with all of them and told them the reasons why they should suspend the agitation.
“I am confident that the different agitating organisations will sit together to suspend the agitation. This is the only purpose of my coming here. I have come here on behalf of the state government and also on my personal behalf,” he said.
