Students protest against Asutosh College's move to ban posters, festoons and graffiti on campus

Updated on: Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Asutosh College on Monday banned posters, festoons and graffiti on the campus, triggering protests by students. “We cannot accept this order. It is unthinkable in a democratic country,” said a student as processions spilled on to SP Mukherjee Road and Hazra crossing, forcing police to intervene.

The authorities stood their ground. “We have identified specific locations where the students’ union or student political groups can put up posters. Anyone violating the rule will be penalised,” said principal Dipak Kar. He has made it mandatory for students to take permission from the college before taking out processions in between classes.

“We will not allow students to hamper classes for political activities. We have, however, not yet banned student politics on campus,” added Kar. Other instructions issued by the college require students to have at least 75% attendance and 40% marks in the test examinations to be allowed for the university exams.

Students reacted angrily. Baishyanar Chatterjee, state secretary of Trinamool Chhatra Parishad said: “The measures to discipline students should have been taken only after discussions with them.”

Kaustav Chatterjee, state secretary of SFI, described the principal’s orders as “Taliban-style diktat”. “If the authorities only expect good engineers or doctors to come out of a college, where will we find good politicians? This has been done with a purpose to ban any movement by students against unjust decisions of the authorities,” Chatterjee said.

Jogomaya Devi College principal Gargi Nath heaved a sigh of relief. “These rules were in force at Asutosh College but no one adhered to them. It is indeed good news that the rules will again fall in place. We do not want to a shabby look on our campus. You see people spitting everywhere. We have waged a war against it and we will succeed. It is good that now even processions cannot be taken out without permission. It will be good for academic activities,” Nath said. (TNN)

Students protest against Asutosh College's move to ban posters, festoons and graffiti on campus

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