NIET students in Greater Noida demand Saturdays off, police arrive on campus

The police, on Saturday morning, entered the campus of NIET College in Greater Noida, after more than 500 students of various engineering courses held a protest demanding that all Saturdays be declared off.

The Knowledge Park police team entered the campus around 10am to speak to the students after a call was made on the police helpline (100) number by someone inside the campus.

“After a call was received on the number, a PCR van was sent to the campus to take stock of the situation. I then visited the college to speak to the students who had just one demand — that the college should be closed on Saturdays. We then spoke to the college management, who told us that the proposal of students is under consideration and the decision will be taken after a meeting between the chairman and director,” Devpal Pundir, SHO, Knowledge Park police station, said.

A total of 6,000 students are currently enrolled in NIET College, which is affiliated to the Abdul Kalam Technical University in Lucknow.

“The college management had introduced classes on Saturday from the academic year 2017-18 and decreased the number of lectures per day from seven to six. Earlier, we used to get an off day on Saturday, but the authorities said that they will hold extra-curricular activities on this day. But that never transpired — and normal classes continued to be held. We demanded that the college be declared closed on Saturdays. Even last year the management had promised that it will be implemented from next semester, but it never happened,” a final year B.Tech student said on condition of anonymity.

Students have claimed that they need an additional off day each week for ‘technical meet-ups’ and family visits.

“Engineering is not just about textual knowledge; we need technical meet ups to discuss our syllabus. Already, attendance is low on Saturday. Moreover, there are many day scholars who have to travel to Greater Noida on this day,” the student added.

Mandeep Singh, the dean of student welfare, NIET, said, “We did not call the police. It is an internal matter. Whatever the demands of students are , we will take them into consideration soon.”

First Published: Sep 16, 2018 04:26 IST