Shimla: State-wide protest of the Himachal Youth Congress and NSUI brigade, against holding offline exams of final year Under Graduate (UG) students in Covid times has found the support of the senior Congress leaders.
On Friday, the chain hunger strike entered fourth day today.
They are staging protest outside the Deputy Commissioners Office, Shimla demanding promotion of first and second year UG students.
Expressing solidarity with the students, the protest garnered support and presence of Congress leaders including All India Congress Committee (AICC) Secretary and Himachal co-incharge Sanjay Dutt, State Congress President Kuldeep Singh Rathore, Congress Legislative Party leader Mukesh Agnihotri, former State Congress president Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu, MLAs Dhani Ram Shandil, Mohan Lal Brakta, Satpal Razadar, Ashish Butail at Shimla.
Former minister, G S Bali joined the protesting HPYC and NSUI at Dharamshala.
If the state government fails to accede to their demands, Congress party will not hesitate to take to the roads, assured Bali, adding that the government has no right to play with the lives of the students as around 50 percent of the UG students have still not been vaccinated against Covid.
Despite their repeated demands and the offline exams of the final year students having started yesterday, the youth activists are now demanding, conducting the exams on the pattern of online exams being held by Panjab University, Chandigarh.
HPYC, President Nigam Bhandari said that they have decided to extend their protest till 7 July.
“Besides, promoting students and holding of online exams, our other demands include complete vaccination of students, fee exemption of students who lost their parents to Covid,” said Nigam.
He said that it was unfortunate that the state government was insensitive to the demands of UG students and putting to risk the lives of the students by holding offline exams.
