Trinamul MP faces student protest

The MP being greeted by the protest in the college. Picture by Biplab Basak

TT, 24 January 2018, Jalpaiguri: The Trinamul MP of Jalpaiguri had to face protests from students with the Trinamul Chhatra Parishad at Ananda Chandra College here on Wednesday.

Bijoy Chandra Burman, the MP, had to hear "go back" slogans from the students who blocked his entry to the college. A meeting of the governing body of the institution was cancelled because of the demonstration.

The MP faced the protests because Debajit Sarkar, the general secretary of the TMCP-backed students' union, was not invited to the meeting of the governing body.

Sarkar is a member of the governing body.

"Recently, we celebrated platinum jubilee of the college and students were asked to deposit Rs 300 each so that they could get a T-shirt to commemorate the celebrations. For each T-shirt, Rs 120 has been saved. In total, around 3,200 students had paid the money. First of all, the balance was not refunded to the students and secondly, many students are yet to get the T-shirt," said Sarkar.

He alleged that Abdur Razzaq, the principal, and the MP, who is the president of the governing body, were holding back the money, which is around Rs 4 lakh.

"Over 550 students are yet to get the T-shirts. At the meeting, I had decided to raise the issue and that was why I was not called," added Sarkar.

The principal, however, said as Sarkar had passed out of the college, he had not been called to the meeting. "I spoke to the governing body president who said as Debajit had passed out of the college, he should not be called. Tenure of the students' union ended on December 31," said Razzaq.

After the meeting was cancelled, the principal managed to get the MP in his chamber. The students were not ready to relent and demonstrated in the chamber for some time.

The college authorities said they would hold a meeting of the executive council to discuss the issue on January 30. Sarkar claimed earlier, people who were in his post had attended governing body meetings even after passing out of the college.

"The students might have some issues. We will see whether those can be resolved through talks," Burman said.