Kolkata: The agitating students of the Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute (SRFTI) here gheraoed its director Debamitra Mitra till the early hours on Saturday, but she refused to accept their demand of an unconditional revocation of the expulsion of 14 girl students from the institute.
The expulsion of the 14 girl students had triggered protests at the institute’s campus on October 17. Ms Mitra said the students gheraoed her last evening as she was about to leave the campus and continued it till around 2 am.
She added that it was not possible to accept the students’ demand of an unconditional revocation of the expulsion of the 14 students, who refused to vacate an old hostel and shift to a new one.
“We cannot accept their demand even if they keep me gheraoed for a year,” Ms Mitra said, adding, “I will go to the campus on Monday. If they want to gherao me, let them do it.”
She said the SRFTI management was ready for a meaningful dialogue with the students and added that it seemed that the students were not in favour of it.
The demands of the agitating students also include an infrastructure upgrade and a budget hike.
Ms Mitra had earlier said the 27-point charter of demands of the students would be looked into after normalcy was restored on the campus.
“We have asked the 14 expelled girls to relocate to the new hostel immediately, which shows that we are ready to take back the expulsion order, if they abide by the rules of the institute,” she said. The students alleged that building a separate accommodation for girl students was an act of moral policing.
Denying the allegations, the SRFTI director had said the authorities had decided to build a separate ladies hostel and upgrade the curriculum and infrastructure of the institute after receiving an approval from the Union information and broadcasting ministry in 2013 in this regard.
“Earlier, the boys and the girls had separate accommodation facilities in the same block of an old hostel building. After receiving the I&B ministry's approval in 2013, we undertook the construction of a new building for the girls,” she said. Ms Mitra added that the objective behind shifting the girls to the new hostel was to ensure students’ safety.
