JORHAT, March 21 - Students of Assam Women�s University (AWU) on the Rowriah outskirts here after completing their 36-hour hunger strike in front of the Jorhat Deputy Commissioner�s office last midnight, today staged a sit-in demonstration inside the university premises in support of their demands.
The students, with support from the Jorhat district unit of the AASU, had carried out the 36-hour fast since Monday demanding that the government appoint a Vice-Chancellor to the university and develop the varsity into a full-fledged one by providing the necessary infrastructure and appointing permanent faculty members and staff. They were also opposing the proposed government plan to convert the university to a technical institute.
A protesting student said that they will be continuing with their stir in different ways to register their protest against the proposed government plan to close the only women�s university in the region and open a technical institute in its place.
�The government should act as our guardian and think for our better future, but this government seems to be throwing us into darkness,� a student observed
Responding to the appeal made by the general secretary of the Dibrugarh University Post Graduate Students� Union Devid Hazarika yesterday to organize protest rallies by college students in order to extend support to AWU students, students of a large number of colleges under Dibrugarh University today staged protests. In Jorhat, students of five colleges staged demonstrations in front of Jorhat Deputy Commissioner�s office here.
The protesting students belonged to JB College, DCB Girls� College, CKB Commerce College, Jorhat College and Jorhat Kendriya Mahavidyalaya. Activists of AJYCP Jorhat town unit burnt effigies of Education Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and the Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal to extend support to AWU students.
It may be mentioned here that the �brief meeting� between the representatives of the protesters accompanied by a few AWU teachers and Sarbananda Sonowal yesterday at the Guest House of the Assam Agricultural University here failed to break the impasse.
