Female students of Presidency University held a sit-in on the campus on Thursday protesting the authorities’ decision to discontinue the bus service to ferry them to and from their Salt Lake hostel.
The students gheraoed the development officer of the university, Koustabh Kanti Nandy, through the day. The protest started at noon and continued till late on Thursday evening.
Before the Covid outbreak in March 2020, Presidency used to provide a bus service to take the girl students to the campus from the hostel in Salt Lake and drop them back after classes.
The campus opened for physical classes in February 2022 but the bus service was not resumed.
The hostel for male students, Eden Hindu Hostel, is located on Peary Charan Street, a stone’s throw from the campus.
Suswati Jana, a protesting student, said it was said the authorities had done nothing to resume the bus service.
“Our hostel is far from the campus. Is it not the duty of the university to ensure transportation at a subsidised cost?”
A university official earlier told Metro that the state transport department used to provide the bus services at a subsidised rate.
The university was unable to bear the expenses because of cost escalation and a drop in grants from the government, said a source on the campus.
Calls and text messages to Nandy and Arun Kumar Maity, dean of students, failed to elicit any response.
Another student said some of them were ready to pay Rs 400 a month for the bus service.
A hostel resident said the authorities had earlier told them they had to pay between Rs 2,000 and Rs 3,000 a month to avail themselves of the bus service.
