The clash occurred during a General Body Meeting (GBM) held to discuss the upcoming student organization elections.
Tag: Jawaharlal Nehru University
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JNU clash: Delhi Police register two separate FIRs
By PTI
NEW DELHI: Police have registered two separate FIRs in connection with a scuffle that broke out between two groups of students on the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) campus, officials said on Friday.
Police had said that two students were injured in Thursday’s clash, while university sources claimed only one student suffered injuries.
The scuffle near the Narmada Hostel was a fallout of events that unfolded at a birthday party on Wednesday, the sources said earlier.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (southwest) Manoj C said, “On the complaint of JNU student Nishant Nagar, a case under sections 323 (punishment for voluntarily causing hurt), 341 (punishment for wrongful restraint) and 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code has been registered.”
He further added that on the complaint of another JNU student Kartik, a second FIR under similar sections has been registered in Vasant Kunj North police station and further investigation is underway.
A few purported video clips were circulated on social media that showed some students with sticks running on the campus.
In one of the videos, masked students were seen with sticks. One of the students was wearing a JNU sweatshirt. Police said they will verify the authenticity of the videos circulating on social media.
Both university sources and the police had said no political groups were involved in the fight.
In recent years, the university has witnessed several instances of violence involving Left-affiliated student outfits and the RSS-backed Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP).
In April this year, two groups of students clashed at the Kaveri Hostel allegedly over the serving of non-vegetarian food in the mess on Ram Navami.
On January 5, 2020, a mob of masked men stormed the campus and targeted students in three hostels.
At least 28 people, including JNU Students’ Union president Aishe Ghosh, were injured as chaos reigned on the campus for nearly two hours.
NEW DELHI: Police have registered two separate FIRs in connection with a scuffle that broke out between two groups of students on the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) campus, officials said on Friday.
Police had said that two students were injured in Thursday’s clash, while university sources claimed only one student suffered injuries.
The scuffle near the Narmada Hostel was a fallout of events that unfolded at a birthday party on Wednesday, the sources said earlier.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (southwest) Manoj C said, “On the complaint of JNU student Nishant Nagar, a case under sections 323 (punishment for voluntarily causing hurt), 341 (punishment for wrongful restraint) and 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code has been registered.”
He further added that on the complaint of another JNU student Kartik, a second FIR under similar sections has been registered in Vasant Kunj North police station and further investigation is underway.
A few purported video clips were circulated on social media that showed some students with sticks running on the campus.
In one of the videos, masked students were seen with sticks. One of the students was wearing a JNU sweatshirt. Police said they will verify the authenticity of the videos circulating on social media.
Both university sources and the police had said no political groups were involved in the fight.
In recent years, the university has witnessed several instances of violence involving Left-affiliated student outfits and the RSS-backed Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP).
In April this year, two groups of students clashed at the Kaveri Hostel allegedly over the serving of non-vegetarian food in the mess on Ram Navami.
On January 5, 2020, a mob of masked men stormed the campus and targeted students in three hostels.
At least 28 people, including JNU Students’ Union president Aishe Ghosh, were injured as chaos reigned on the campus for nearly two hours.
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JNU teachers raise concern over CUET’s effect on university’s autonomy, students’ future
By PTI
NEW DELHI: Several teachers at the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) raised concerns over the recently held Common University Entrance Test (CUET), calling it “chaotic, and irresponsible” which entails the erosion of varsity’s autonomy.
In a press conference, JNU teachers association (JNUTA) representatives alleged that CUET based system is creating insurmountable losses in the field of teaching and learning for current and future generations, besides causing irreparable harm to democratic and participative governance in the university.
The JNUTA teachers spoke about the extremely adverse impact of the CUET-based system of admissions on JNU’s educational programmes.
“The existence of the CUET has ensured that no decision about admissions can be taken within the university anymore, thus effectively undoing of Parliament,” JNUTA said. The teachers also said the test also “eviscerate the university acts”.
“With unsynchronised semesters, students in two intersecting semesters cannot opt for the entire range of courses being offered in the university at the time! For programmes whose curriculum or syllabi crucially relies on the cross-listing of courses, this has proved disastrous,” the JNUTA added.
Speaking at press conference, Professor Ayesha Kidwai said JNU is a university that caters to poor students — about half of our students are from rural India, hailing from families with incomes less than Rs 12,000 a month, and are women.
“The delay in admissions in universities participating in the CUET has effectively caused a break in these students’ education. For those students amongst these who would be relying on university fellowships to sustain themselves and their families, the lack of admissions may, in all likelihood, push them out of the education system altogether. With one stroke, the youth dividend, we often take pride in, goes to waste,” Kidwai said.
“The primary reason why JNU finds itself in such a disastrous situation is the complete collapse of JNU’s statutory bodies, mainly due to the previous administration,” she added.
NEW DELHI: Several teachers at the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) raised concerns over the recently held Common University Entrance Test (CUET), calling it “chaotic, and irresponsible” which entails the erosion of varsity’s autonomy.
In a press conference, JNU teachers association (JNUTA) representatives alleged that CUET based system is creating insurmountable losses in the field of teaching and learning for current and future generations, besides causing irreparable harm to democratic and participative governance in the university.
The JNUTA teachers spoke about the extremely adverse impact of the CUET-based system of admissions on JNU’s educational programmes.
“The existence of the CUET has ensured that no decision about admissions can be taken within the university anymore, thus effectively undoing of Parliament,” JNUTA said. The teachers also said the test also “eviscerate the university acts”.
“With unsynchronised semesters, students in two intersecting semesters cannot opt for the entire range of courses being offered in the university at the time! For programmes whose curriculum or syllabi crucially relies on the cross-listing of courses, this has proved disastrous,” the JNUTA added.
Speaking at press conference, Professor Ayesha Kidwai said JNU is a university that caters to poor students — about half of our students are from rural India, hailing from families with incomes less than Rs 12,000 a month, and are women.
“The delay in admissions in universities participating in the CUET has effectively caused a break in these students’ education. For those students amongst these who would be relying on university fellowships to sustain themselves and their families, the lack of admissions may, in all likelihood, push them out of the education system altogether. With one stroke, the youth dividend, we often take pride in, goes to waste,” Kidwai said.
“The primary reason why JNU finds itself in such a disastrous situation is the complete collapse of JNU’s statutory bodies, mainly due to the previous administration,” she added.
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JNU clash: Education ministry seeks report from varsity, students’ union demands judicial probe
By PTI
NEW DELHI: The Union education ministry on Tuesday sought a report from the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) regarding violence on its campus on Ram Navami, even as the varsity’s students’ union demanded an independent judicial inquiry into the matter.
Two student groups clashed at the university’s Kaveri Hostel on Sunday allegedly over serving of non-vegetarian food in its mess of the festive day, with police saying 20 students were injured.
Former JNU vice-chancellor M Jagadesh Kumar, who is currently the chairman of the University Grants Commission (UGC), said that violence of any kind on university campuses should be avoided.
The groups have lodged police complaints against each other, while JNU authorities claimed the violence occurred after some students objected to a ‘hawan’, an assertion also made by RSS-affiliate Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP).
However, the JNU Students Union (JNUSU), which is led by Left-affiliated outfits, has alleged that ABVP members attacked students while opposing the serving of non-vegetarian food in the mess.
Police will be recording the statements of the victims once the situation calms down, a senior officer said.
Student bodies protested outside the Jamia Millia Islamia against what transpired at JNU and to demand that food choices cannot be imposed on people in the name of Ram Navami.
“Not only in JNU but there was violence on Ram Navami in states like Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh. You cannot dictate what people should eat and impose your food choices on them,” said a protester.
At JNU, its student’s union led a delegation to meet the university’s vice-chancellor Shantishree Dhulipudi Pandit to put forth its demands but could not meet her.
Security officials have asked it to put in a formal request for an appointment with the vice-chancellor.
The delegation demanded that the university withdraw its statement issued on April 11 (Monday) in which it said that the clash broke out on Sunday after some students objected to a ‘hawan’ conducted “peacefully” on the occasion of Ram Navami.
Claiming that the violence at the Kaveri Hostel has its beginnings in the arbitrary demand of prohibition of non-vegetarian meals at the hostel mess by a group of students, the delegation said that it has been corroborated by the relevant hostel committee and mess committee members.
“However, the same students who raised this demand and violently disrupted the functioning of the mess, who are also associated with the ABVP, have resorted to spreading a narrative of disruption of havan in the hostel premises, a claim that is neither supported by the hostel or mess committee,” read a statement by the JNUSU.
It said that “it is extremely shameful” that the press statement released by the JNU administration on Monday endorsed the version of the ABVP “without the conduct of any official enquiry”.
“Such partisan support of a single narrative is becoming of a university administration and therefore, we demand that the the press statement released by the JNU administration on April 11 be rescinded forthwith,” the statement said.
The students’ body demanded that the JNU administration take swift action on the issue and take view of the matter in a free and fair manner.
“However, it is with extreme regret that we must note that the actions of the JNU administration have either fallen short of the expectations of the student community or been partisan in nature,” it said.
Noting that there are justified doubts regarding the competency of an internal enquiry in the matter, they demand that the JNU administration either pursue for the conduct of an judicial inquiry into the matter or constitute a committee with a serving or retired judge of the high court as the chair for investigation.
“The committee should give a call to collect all testimonies and evidence, meet with the aggrieved parties, and release the report and recommendations to the public in a time-bound manner.
It has been increasingly observed that the prevalence of politically motivated violence in the campus is becoming a norm rather than the exception,” the JNUSU said.
Meanwhile, Afzal Ahmed, a meat vendor, who has been supplying meat to the university’s hostels’ mess for the last 25-30 years claimed that he had received a call on Sunday morning asking him not to supply meat to the Kaveri Hostel on the occasion of Ram Navami.
Ahmed said, “On the morning of April 10, I got a call from some JNU students asking me not to supply meat to the Kaveri Hostel. I told them that I had received the order on April 9.” “But they threatened me saying if I supplied meat to the hostel, they would ensure that I am not able to supply meat to other JNU hostels. I told them I will come down and speak to them,” he told PTI.
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Security tightens at JNU to maintain peace: Police
Police personnel have been deployed only outside the campus till now while the security inside the campus is being taken care of by the university's security guards.
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Academic council recommending changes ‘contrary’ to NEP: JNU Teachers’ Association
The Vice-Chancellor, however, said that the council which the apex body of the university is quot;more representative quot; of the entire institute and that the administration has to follow its decision.
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February 7 Uttarakhand disaster was caused by massive rock and ice avalanche: Study
By PTI
NEW DELHI: The February 7 disaster in the Chamoli district of Uttarakhand, that resulted in over 200 dead or missing, was the result of an avalanche that dropped about 27 million cubic metres of rock and glacier ice from the nearby Ronti Peak, according to a study by an international team of researchers.The region experienced a humanitarian tragedy on February 7 this year, when a wall of debris and water barrelled down the Ronti Gad, Rishiganga and Dhauliganga river valleys.
To investigate the cause, scope, and impacts of the disaster, a global team of 53 scientists came together in the days following the tragedy.
The researchers, including those from Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi and Indian Institute of Technology Indore, determined that the flood was caused by falling rock and glacier ice that melted on its descent, and not by a lake or diverted river.
The study, published in the journal Science on Thursday, suggests that climate change is contributing to such events happening more frequently, and highlights risks of increasing development projects in fragile environments.
The rock and ice avalanche rapidly transformed into an extraordinarily large and mobile debris flow that transported boulders 20 metres in diameter, and scoured the valley walls up to 220 metres above the valley floor, the researchers said.
The finding will help researchers and policymakers better identify emerging hazards in the region.
The study used satellite imagery, seismic records, and eyewitness videos to produce computer models of the flow.
Initial hypotheses for the cause of the event suggested a glacial lake outburst flood.
However, there are no glacial lakes large enough to produce a flood anywhere near the site, the researchers noted.
“Our access to high-resolution satellite imagery and research software, and our expertise in satellite remote sensing were crucial to get a bird’s-eye view of how the event unfolded,” said study co-author Shashank Bhushan, a doctoral student at the University of Washington in the US.
“We worked with our French collaborators to coordinate satellite collections within days of the event and rapidly process the images to derive detailed topographic maps of the site,” Bhushan said.
The team compared the images and topographic maps from before and after the event to document all of the changes and reconstruct the sequence of events.
“We tracked a plume of dust and water to a conspicuous dark patch high on a steep slope,” said study lead author Dan Shugar, associate professor at the University of Calgary in Canada.
The dark patch turned out to be the scar left by the 35 million cubic yards of missing rock and glacier ice with a three-foot-deep layer.
“This was the source of a giant landslide that triggered the cascade of events, and caused immense death and destruction,” said Shugar.
The researchers also used the maps to determine how far the block of ice and rock fell.
“The failed block fell over a mile before impacting the valley floor. To put this height in context, imagine vertically stacking up 11 space needles or six Eiffel Towers,” Bhushan said.
The team also quantified how the pulverised rock and ice were redistributed over the downstream areas.
“As the block fell, most of the glacier ice melted within minutes. This resulted in a huge volume of water associated with the flooding,” Bhushan said.
“This is highly unusual — a normal rock landslide or snow/ice avalanche could not have produced such huge volumes of water,” he explained.
The team also used satellite image archives to show that previous large ice masses had been dislodged from the same ridge and struck the same valley in recent years.
The researchers suggest that climate change is likely increasing the frequency of such events, and that the greater magnitude of the latest disaster should be considered before further infrastructure development in the area.
“These high-mountain rivers are appealing for hydropower projects, and we need a better understanding of the full spectrum of potential high-mountain hazards,” said David Shean, a University of Washington assistant professor.
“We hope that lessons learned from this effort will improve our ability to respond to future disasters and guide policy decisions that will save lives,” he added.
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JNU administration rejects teacher association’s charge of being ‘highly insensitive’
By PTI
NEW DELHI: The Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) administration on Tuesday rejected the teacher association’s allegation of being “highly insensitive” towards the faculty and students, and said it had all along adopted a flexible and lenient approach to help scholars amid the pandemic.The Jawaharlal Nehru University Teachers’ Association (JNUTA) had criticised the administration on Monday after it initiated registration process for the students admitted in 2020-21, saying that many universities in the country had either declared vacation or suspended their online classes due to the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic.
“…JNU wants to stand out as the only institution to have not opted or allowed for any break between semesters for over a year and half during the Covid-19 pandemic,” JNUTA said in a statement.
In response, the JNU issued a statement denying the “baseless allegation” and said that in view of the second wave, it had “twice postponed” the date of registration following the requests from the schools and the special centres.
“…only after the Deans of Schools and Chairpersons of all Special Centres suggested the need for starting the registration process for these students that a decision was taken to start the registration process,” the varsity said.
It added that administration has all along adopted “a flexible and lenient approach” to enable the students to complete their courses and examinations by delegating the decisions on teaching, examination and evaluation processes to schools and special centres.
“The university has often extended the deadline of registration and has allowed late registration without late fine to help the students who face difficulties.
The reported allegations thus are untrue and baseless,” it said.
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JNU central library’s sanitation workers allege non-payment of salaries since November
By PTI
NEW DELHI: Sanitation workers of the Jawaharlal Nehru University’s central library have alleged that the varsity had not paid their salaries since last November.The All India Central Council of Trade Unions (AICCTU) said in a statement on Tuesday that the workers had been on strike for 23 days, alleging that the JNU administration denied them equal pay and safety equipments.
“Till June 2020 (till complete lockdown), they were paid Rs 12,900 per month (for 26 days work month), which is far below the minimum wage,” it said.
The AICCTU alleged that the workers had been paid a meagre Rs 9,000 in the name of a month’s salary after the two weeks’ strike.
“Those who clean the every corner of the campus are not being paid,” said Urmila Chauhan, president of the All India General Kamgar Union, a body affiliated with the AICCTU.
“The so-called corona warriors who have to face the deadly virus without any protective equipment have to go without salaries for months,” Chauhan said.
“This is nothing less than bonded labour.”
The union alleged that the workers’ grievances include retrenchment and “victimisation” of the union office-bearers, non-payment of bonus, irregularities in PF contribution, and non-issuance of ID cards and salary slips.
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‘Pose major threat to farming community’: Over 400 academicians flag concern regarding agri laws
By Express News Service
NEW DELHI: Over 400 academicians from India and several universities abroad have extended support to the protesting farmers and urged the Centre to repeal the three new agri reform laws, which they said, “pose a major threat to farming communities”.Expressing concerns about the ongoing farmers’ agitation and their suffering at the borders of Delhi, they, in a joint statement, said: “The three new laws that have been enacted by the government are aimed at bringing in fundamental changes in the way farming will be done in the country and they pose a major threat to farming communities all over India.”
The government must re-look at these issues and a nationwide debate should be launched starting at the village level, involving stakeholders from all sections of society before framing laws and policies which will help farming communities and other marginalised communities in the long-term, the statement said.
Last month, over 850 academicians from various educational institutions across the country had signed an open letter backing the legislations.
The 400-odd academicians in their statement said, “The three new laws that have been enacted by the government are aimed at bringing in fundamental changes in the way farming will be done in the country and they pose a major threat to farming communities all over India.”
“The government must re-look at these issues. A nationwide debate should be launched starting at the village level, involving stakeholders from all sections of society before framing laws and policies which will help farming communities and other marginalised communities in the long-term. To pave the way for solving farmers issues, the current laws should be abandoned without any further delay,” it added.
The 413 signatories to the statement include academicians from universities and institutions including Jawaharlal Nehru University, Jadavpur University, IIT Kanpur, IIT Madras, IISc Bangalore, Indian Statistical Institute Kolkata, Delhi University, Panjab University, Tezpur University, Central university of Punjab, IIT Bombay and IIM Calcutta.
A few signatories are from foreign universities including University of Zagreb, Croatia; London Film School, University of Johannesburg, University of Oslo, University of Massachusetts and University of Pittsburgh.
The academicians recommended that farming could be made into a sustainable and profitable activity by announcing minimum support price (MSP) for a large number of crops, specifying state-wise quotas for government procurement, and making the MSP rate legally binding for all other buyers as well.
The statement also called for price control on farm inputs such as manure, seeds and power, farm loan waivers, and a revival of the village-based development model so that migration to cities could be curtailed.
It warned that the Centre’s proposed “commodity market model” was not viable in India as it could lead to food instability and exploitation of small farmers.
“The winding up of government controlled markets allowing contract farming by companies will lead to land-owning farmers slowly being forced to become tenants, the way they were in the older feudal system of land holdings,” said the statement.
Thousands of farmers have been camping at several Delhi border points, demanding a complete repeal of the three farm laws — the Farmers’ (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, the Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act — and legal guarantee of minimum support price for their crops.
Enacted in September 2020, the government has presented these laws as major farm reforms aimed at increasing farmers’ income, but the protesting farmers have raised concerns that these legislations would weaken the minimum support price (MSP) and “mandi” (wholesale market) systems and leave them at the mercy of big corporations.
The government has maintained that these apprehensions are misplaced and has ruled out a repeal of the laws.
(With PTI Inputs)