Scores of students held a protest outside the office of Delhi University’s vice-chancellor on Monday demanding immediate reopening of the campus, days after the Delhi Disaster Management Authority gave its nod to resumption of offline teaching in the capital.
The students hung an ”Out of Service” placard on the gate of the VC office. The demonstration was organised by the Students’ Federation of India (SFI). The SFI said over 400 students took part in the “gherao”. “The frustration of students is quite evident. You can see it on their faces, hear it in their voices. The VC must address the situation in the next two days or else we would have to break the locks on our classrooms ourselves,” said Ankit Birpali, SFI Hindu College Secretary.
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Other student and teacher organisations also extended support of the protest, claimed the student body. Over 53 departments across the university observed a complete boycott of online classes, claimed the SFI. “Many of us are not in Delhi right now so we could not join the protest called by SFI. But we decided that we must take action to send a message that students, in general, support the demand of re-opening the campus. Hence, we boycotted online classes today,” said Arushi Sharma, a student of Miranda House.
Despite the DDMA giving a go-ahead to the reopening of higher educational institutions from Monday, the DU has not issued any notification for the reopening of the campus. Officials have said the university will open in a few days and they will formulate a strategy in this regard.
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The SFI has announced the commencement of ”Sadak pe Kaksha”, — ”Classroom on the street” from February 9 until the university reopens. “Classrooms on the street is a message to the administration that both teachers and students want to begin offline classes. If they have any respect left for us, they should open the classrooms immediately,” said Abhishek, Co-convenor of SFI DU. The DDMA has decided to reopen higher educational institutions and coaching centres, along with schools for classes 9-12, from Monday.
Asked about the reopening of the DU colleges, vice-chancellor Yogesh Singh had said they would give a few days’ time to the students to return to the campus. “If the DDMA allows 100 per cent seating capacity, we will definitely reopen the campus. But we will give a few days’ time to our students, say 10 days, for returning to the campus since most of the students are from other states. We will formulate our own strategy,” he had said.
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