After 16 days of hunger strike to press for the removal of vice chancellor Prof. Prabha Shankar Shukla, the protesting students of North Eastern Hills University (NEHU) today decided to temporarily suspend their fast.
However, the students will continue daily sit-in demonstrations at the university campus from 9 am to 5 pm.
“Based on the medical advice…we have seen the health of our students who have been starving for 16 days, has been deteriorating so we the KSU NEHU unit and the NEHUSU decided to temporarily suspend the agitation,” NEHU Students’ Union (NEHUSU) president Sandy Sohtun said while addressing the students outside the vice chancellor’s office.
“However this does not signify that we will end our agitation but we will continue to protest during the week days from 9 am to 5 pm and we will not move from this place until and unless our demands are fulfilled,” Sohtun added.
Sohtun said that the students decided to call off their hunger strike in consideration of requests from the teachers, the staff and doctors of the university.
He said that he felt emotional seeing his fellow protesting students being admitted to the hospital every day.
Sohtun also said that the students are awaiting the report of the two-man enquiry panel set up by the Ministry of Education.
“But if the Ministry of Education fails to take appropriate action based on the report we will again resume this hunger strike or we can take other measures,” he added.
Sohtun also said that he hoped the teachers, staff and students of the university will support them till the demands are fulfilled.
He said that though NEHU vice chancellor Prof. Shukla has been adamant, the students will not follow in his footsteps.
“So I as a leader feel that for the time being we have to relax and we will wait till the report from the committee is out,” the NEHUSU president said.
Meanwhile, acting vice chancellor Prof. Nirmalendu Saha and senior professors felicitated the students who took part in the hunger strike in the presence of leaders of NEHU Teachers’ Association (NEHUTA) and NEHU Non-teaching Staff Association (NEHUNSA).
