Kolkata: The stalemate in the Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute (SRFTI) here continued for the tenth day on Thursday even after its director Debamitra Mitra’s willingness to revoke the expulsion order against 14 girl students.
“We have asked the 14 expelled girls to relocate to the new hostel immediately which shows we are ready to take back the expulsion order if they abide by the rules of the institute. But strangely, the striking students continue to block the entrance of administrative building and are not allowing us to run the institute,” Ms Mitra told PTI. The institute director said some boys who had been occupying rooms of the girls’ hostel after breaking locks should also move back to the boys’ hostel.
The authorities will not press charges against them, she promised.
Ms Mitra said the administration and students should sit together for talks and only then the decisions could be officially communicated.
“The students should allow administrative activities to resume at the earliest so that notifications can be issued with proper stamping and not verbally,” she said.
The Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute director claimed that the agitation was losing support among other students in the campus.
Meanwhile, a spokesman of the agitating students, Akshay Gouri said when the administrators claimed they required official apparatus to revoke the expulsion order, the students had provided them with required stationery yesterday, but “they did not cooperate and left the campus”.
Besides the main demand of not segregating boys and girls hostels, the students have also demanded infrastructure upgrade and budget hike among others.
Ms Mitra said the agitating students’ 27-point charter of demands would be looked into after restoration of normalcy in the campus.
