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HomeIndiaNIT Srinagar students protest against 17 Dec exam date, say shutdown left...

NIT Srinagar students protest against 17 Dec exam date, say shutdown left course incomplete

Two groups of students even had a scuffle amid the protests, but management has told them a final decision on exams hasn’t been taken yet.

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Srinagar: Agonised by the four-month-long shutdown in Jammu and Kashmir, engineering students at Srinagar’s National Institute of Technology (NIT) have lodged their protest against the management’s decision to hold examinations from 17 December.

Second-year B. Tech. and first-semester M. Tech. students are supposed to take exams from this date.

Students say the exams are being held to bring the academic session to an abrupt end, even though a large chunk of the syllabus has not been covered because of the shutdown imposed due to the scrapping of Article 370.

The students’ protest began last week and continued until Wednesday, when a scuffle broke out between B. Tech. second-year and third-year students, apparently because the protesting second-years didn’t let a third-year student enter the campus. The management intervened and warned students to stay disciplined. The issue of the examinations was raised with management, and though a final decision has not been taken, the students remain wary.

ThePrint was not allowed to enter the institute Thursday, the day after the scuffle, but students told this reporter that they had been requesting the management to delay the exams, to no avail.

“We had requested the management to delay the examination but there was no one who would listen to us. So, we began a peaceful demonstration. The demonstrations had been taking place since the last few days, but we didn’t see any concrete move taken by the management for our benefit,” said a student who didn’t wish to be named.

“Only after the scuffle did the management take notice, but it warned the students against any indiscipline. We are told a final decision on whether to hold the examinations or not will come next Monday.”


Also read: Kashmir suffered Rs 15,000 crore loss since August 5, says commerce body


What has happened since August

The NIT was among the thousands of educational institutes that were closed when the Narendra Modi government scrapped Jammu and Kashmir’s special status on 5 August and decided to bifurcate the state into two union territories — J&K and Ladakh.

The government clampdown was followed by an unprecedented shutdown in the Valley, which began soon after the J&K administration began to relax the curbs on the movement of civilians in late August.

The political uncertainty, coupled with the ban on mobile phone networks, delayed the regular functioning of the Valley’s top engineering institution.

The NIT only began operating partially on 15 October, and classes resumed after more than two months on 21 October, once the outstation students returned to Kashmir.


Also read: Entrepreneurs to jobless in 3 months — no internet kills Kashmir’s next-gen businesses


Management silent

At the campus Thursday, there was talk of four protesting students — two from Kashmir and two from outside — being rusticated. But the management did not confirm the development.

Adnan Qayoom, dean of students’ welfare, told ThePrint he was not aware of any protests on campus, while NIT registrar S.K. Bukhari first said he would respond to queries, but then stopped receiving calls on his mobile phone.

(Edited by Shreyas Sharma)


Also read: Only 40% GST returns filed in J&K due to internet blockade, big fall in revenue collection


 

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