JU orders Prof. to return students answer scripts

Mou Chakraborty,
Kolkata, March 12
The situation in the English department at Jadavpur University came to a boil on Monday following allegations of sexual discrimination made by Monojit Mandal, a lecturer of the department. Things have come to a head, with university authorities ordering the lecturer to return the answer scripts. Mandal has alleged that students had written obscene messages, directed at him, in the answer scripts.
The vice chancellor of the university, prof. S.K. Sanyal has sent a letter to Mandal, asking him to submit the answer scripts, which is the property of the university on March 13 by 11 am or else the university would be taking appropriate action. Mandal’s wife Baisakhi Banerjee however said that no communication had reached her husband from the university in this regard.
The primary fact finding committee, headed by registrar Rajat Bandhyopadhyay will submit its report on the incident within the next two days. “Our report is ready. We have given our findings and suggestions in the report in detail. After going through it, our vice chancellor will decide the next course of action,” said Bandhyopadhyay.
The university has the power to allot marks on pro-rata basis or by conducting a re-examination. But the students are adverse to the idea of taking a re-examination. “We have taken the examination in the manner the university conducted it. Now why will some students be victimised and asked to take another examination. We would want the university to take the answer scripts from him and get it checked by our other teachers and publish the result at the earliest,” said Arnab Banerjee, a PG-I student.
The students would submit a deputation to the registrar on March 13, which will be supported by a letter from their head of the department Prof. Swapan Chakraborty. The students have also threatened to go to human rights commission. “The teacher concern has taken the names of girls in the media and giving statements about them writing sexually explicit comments in the answer script. We wanted to go to court, but now we have decided to go to human rights commission if the matter is not resolved,” said Banerjee.
mou.hindustantimes@yahoo.com