The All Garo Hills Joint Action Committee (AGHJAC) were unswayed by an assurance that the Vice-Chancellor of North-Eastern Hill University (NEHU) would visit the Tura campus before Christmas and continued its office picketing, which resulted in classes being suspended.
The protest follows an assurance provided by the VC to meet the pressure groups to resolve issues faced by the university. After the VC failed to live up to his promise, the AGHJAC restarted its protest despite further assurances of a meeting being provided by the Pro VC of NEHU Tura, G Singhaih.
The AGHJAC meet with Singhaih today but resolved to continue their protest.
The committee had earlier demanded an equal number of departments to be set up on the Tura campus as exist in Shillong. It had also demanded an alteration to previous admissions to include all justified students from Garo Hills as well as an increase in the number of seats in every department to match the increasing population in the state.
Furthermore, it also demanded a capable local to be made the Pro-VC of the Tura campus in order to address grievances of students, changes in infrastructure, regularisation of staff, filling up vacant posts, setting up examination centres as well as the appointment of local guest lecturers, regularisation of all contractual appointees, appointment of a deputy registrar and assistant registrar at Tura campus.
“We will continue our protest for the genuine demands for the Tura campus and the Garo Hills region. We have asked for a written assurance from the VC for the meeting with us but are yet to get a reply from the office. Until the assurance is made and changes are brought we will continue this protest,” said AGHJAC convenor, Balkarin Marak.
