Two days after students of the National Institute of Technology Calicut (NITC) protested against the night curfew in the campus, NIT administration announced on Friday, March 22, that classes for all semesters of Bachelor of Technology and Bachelor of Architecture (BTech/BArch) will be held in online mode from March 23 to April 5.
On Wednesday, March 20 a letter was issued by the dean of student’s welfare, stating all students should be back in their rooms by midnight and the late-night canteens within the campus have been asked to close by 11 pm. The institute also issued a warning to the students that those who violate the rule will be suspended from the hostels.
The student protest against the night curfew started on Thursday, March 21. On Friday morning, the students staged a protest at the main gates of the campus and blocked the officials from entering the campus. Due to the protest, faculty as well as the staff were not able to enter the campus and it affected the classes and functioning of the campus.
The students said the night curfew would affect their studies as the libraries on the campus function round the clock.
A meeting was held between the students and the dean, but it did not yield positive results.
The Member of Parliament (MP) from Kozhikode MK Raghavan and Rajya Sabha MP Elamaram Kareem held talks with the NIT administration on March 22. While talking to the media, Kareem said that they had received assurance from the authorities that they would put on hold the imposition of the curfew and that further action would be taken only after talking to the students.
However, at midnight on March 22, the institute announced online classes. End-semester exams, starting on April 17, for the final-semester students will be conducted in the offline mode.