The All Garo Hills Joint Action Committee (AGHJAC) today began a picket in front of the Tura office of the North-Eastern Hill University (NEHU) over the failure of the institution to fulfil the demands made by the conglomeration of pressure groups.
Earlier, following a similar protest over a month ago, the Vice-Chancellor of NEHU had promised to come to Tura and meet with leaders of the AGHJAC after Diwali to sort out issues that had been raised by them for students of the institute. However, a month has now gone by and the failure of the VC to come and talk led to AGHJAC members restarting their agitation.
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 have waited patiently for the VC to come and talk to us in Tura to listen to the demands we made. He promised to do so after Diwali but has not lived up to his promise. We now have no other option but to agitate as these are genuine demands made by us on behalf of aspiring and current students of the university in Tura,” said AGHJAC convenor, Balkarin Marak.
Meanwhile speaking on behalf of NEHU, Pro-VC, G Singhaih, informed that the VC had been delayed due to some unforeseen circumstances and had promised to be there in Tura on December 22 to speak on the issues put forward.
“I had personally tried to guarantee, through a letter, that he would be coming but they wanted an assurance from the VC himself. I am still awaiting a letter from the VC to that effect,” said Singhaih.
