Police beat up SFI members on GU campus

GUWAHATI: At least 26 Students’ Federation of India (SFI) activists were injured in police lathicharge on the campus of Gauhati University on Saturday. They were staging a protest against the policies of the university.
Breaking the police barricade, SFI activists marched towards the vice-chancellor’s office drawing the ire of police and subsequent baton charge on them. The members demanded better facilities, adequate teachers, upgraded libraries and classrooms in the university and colleges affiliated to it.
“This is an undemocratic way of gagging the students’ voices. We went to raise our demands before the authorities regarding the semester system introduced by Gauhati University a few years ago. Students are not benefitting from semester system owing to lack of infrastructure in the colleges,” said party leader Ritu Ranjan Das.
He said many colleges hold 60 to 70 classes per semester and so courses mostly remain incomplete.
“The course curriculum of Gauhati University has not been prepared scientifically and systematically. The syllabus has remained the same and has only been divided into two parts after the introduction of the semester pattern,” Das said.
SFI demanded that the varsity should start re-evaluation of answer scripts. “Delay in announcement of semester-end examination is affecting the preparations of students for the next semester. The university authorities should declare the results within one month of the exams,” said Das.