Students assaulted at Calcutta Medical College during protest
Shreya Biswas
New Delhi and Kolkata
UPDATED: July 6, 2018 17:57 IST
Calcutta Medical College students protesting over hostel seats.
Staged a gherao, irking principal to call police.
Students allege cops, goons posing as cops assaulted them.
Students protesting at Calcutta Medical College. Source: @SUNDARmyth/Twitter
As students locked horns with the Executive Council in south Kolkata's Jadavpur University yesterday, some 10 km away in central Kolkata, protests were brewing at the Calcutta Medical College (CMC) as well. Later last night, things took a turn for the worse at CMC when a gherao by students forced the principal to call the police.
Students allege that police, along with "drunk goondas posing as cops", assaulted them for conducting a "peaceful protest".
For over two weeks, MBBS students from the second to the fifth year have been protesting at the college campus. Their anger stemmed from the administration's latest announcement: seats for a newly built 11-storey hostel had been alloted away to first-year students.
"The old hostel where senior students stay does not have sufficient space for all of us. Plus, there have been multiple accidents there," Dr Sayantan, a final-year MBBS student at the CMC, told IndiaToday.in.
"There's a false ceiling in the old hostel that has collapsed multiple times and injured many students. Still, we are being expected to live there," Dr Sayantan added. "We have been asking for better accommodation for the past three years."
The college administration, as the students themselves point out, are bound to put up first-year students separately from seniors to prevent ragging. But they also believe that seats for the newly built hostel should be given out based on seniority first, and then by distance of the college from home.
For almost three days, the agitating students have been living with their belongings at the general common room. The students have staged sit-ins, demonstrations with slogans and banners.
"We have been trying to speak to the principal for a long time, but he kept alluding us," Dr Hillol Karjee, another MBBS student at the CMCH, told IndiaToday.in. "Finally, he agreed to meet us at 4:30 yesterday, but the meeting had no fruitful outcome.
The students then staged a gherao around Principal Uchhal Bhadra's office, with scores of them lying down on the corridor blocking his way.
Principal Bhadra, who stressed that he was only following the medical council orders by allocating first-years in the new hostel, said he called the police when the students wouldn't let him pass.
The students claim that when the cops came to take Bhadra, they assaulted them, which the local police have denied doing.
"Not all of them were cops. Some were drunk and failed to provide their ID cards," said Sayantan.
The students also accused Dr Partha Pratim Mondal, who has been appointed as the new hostel's superintendent, of summoning goons to disrupt the ongoing protest and attack students.
"Rules state that only a professor can be made a hostel superintendent, which Dr Mondal is not," claimed the final-year student.
A list of demands by the protesting students ask that accommodation-students of second through fifth-year get "hostel accommodation by open and transparent hostel counselling process that includes the New Boys' Hostel,".
"We refuse an under qualified TMC part-time doctor (who lead planned attack by outsiders on college students demanding their hostel allotment) as a hostel superintendent of New Boys' Hostel," comes second in the list of demands.
As per latest reports, the protests have simmered down to let admission procedures at the Calcutta Medical College go on smoothly.
Shreya Biswas
New Delhi and Kolkata
UPDATED: July 6, 2018 17:57 IST
Calcutta Medical College students protesting over hostel seats.
Staged a gherao, irking principal to call police.
Students allege cops, goons posing as cops assaulted them.
Students protesting at Calcutta Medical College. Source: @SUNDARmyth/Twitter
As students locked horns with the Executive Council in south Kolkata's Jadavpur University yesterday, some 10 km away in central Kolkata, protests were brewing at the Calcutta Medical College (CMC) as well. Later last night, things took a turn for the worse at CMC when a gherao by students forced the principal to call the police.
Students allege that police, along with "drunk goondas posing as cops", assaulted them for conducting a "peaceful protest".
For over two weeks, MBBS students from the second to the fifth year have been protesting at the college campus. Their anger stemmed from the administration's latest announcement: seats for a newly built 11-storey hostel had been alloted away to first-year students.
"The old hostel where senior students stay does not have sufficient space for all of us. Plus, there have been multiple accidents there," Dr Sayantan, a final-year MBBS student at the CMC, told IndiaToday.in.
"There's a false ceiling in the old hostel that has collapsed multiple times and injured many students. Still, we are being expected to live there," Dr Sayantan added. "We have been asking for better accommodation for the past three years."
The college administration, as the students themselves point out, are bound to put up first-year students separately from seniors to prevent ragging. But they also believe that seats for the newly built hostel should be given out based on seniority first, and then by distance of the college from home.
For almost three days, the agitating students have been living with their belongings at the general common room. The students have staged sit-ins, demonstrations with slogans and banners.
"We have been trying to speak to the principal for a long time, but he kept alluding us," Dr Hillol Karjee, another MBBS student at the CMCH, told IndiaToday.in. "Finally, he agreed to meet us at 4:30 yesterday, but the meeting had no fruitful outcome.
The students then staged a gherao around Principal Uchhal Bhadra's office, with scores of them lying down on the corridor blocking his way.
Principal Bhadra, who stressed that he was only following the medical council orders by allocating first-years in the new hostel, said he called the police when the students wouldn't let him pass.
The students claim that when the cops came to take Bhadra, they assaulted them, which the local police have denied doing.
"Not all of them were cops. Some were drunk and failed to provide their ID cards," said Sayantan.
The students also accused Dr Partha Pratim Mondal, who has been appointed as the new hostel's superintendent, of summoning goons to disrupt the ongoing protest and attack students.
"Rules state that only a professor can be made a hostel superintendent, which Dr Mondal is not," claimed the final-year student.
A list of demands by the protesting students ask that accommodation-students of second through fifth-year get "hostel accommodation by open and transparent hostel counselling process that includes the New Boys' Hostel,".
"We refuse an under qualified TMC part-time doctor (who lead planned attack by outsiders on college students demanding their hostel allotment) as a hostel superintendent of New Boys' Hostel," comes second in the list of demands.
As per latest reports, the protests have simmered down to let admission procedures at the Calcutta Medical College go on smoothly.
