Calcutta Medical College and Hospital students end hunger strike on 14th day

The agitating Calcutta Medical College and Hospital(CMCH) students lifted their indefinite hunger strike on the 14th day today after a college council meeting decided to give in to their demands and accomodate senior students in two floors of the new 11-storied hostel.

The college council meeting decided that students of second to fourth years will be alloted rooms in the two floors of the new hostel builing, a CMCH spokesman said.

A resolution signed by the officiating Principal Ashok Bhadra said, "two floors of the new building will be alloted to senior unboarded boys (batches - 2015-2016, 2016-17, 2017-18) after an open and transparent counselling, purely on a temporary basis."

"The students will be required to submit a written undertaking that they will vacate accomodation from the newly alloted hostel when the construction of the new hostel on Eden Hospital Road is made habitable," the resolution said.

The CMCH spokesman said another new hostel building for senior students was already coming up on nearby Eden Hospital Road but would take some time.

The resolution further said repair of all existing hostels will be undertaken on an urgent basis.

Welcoming the decision of the council, Debashis Burman, who is one of the six students on fast since July 10, said, "We wanted to get accomodation in the new hostel since our present hostel is in very poor shape. Hence if in future we have to shift from the new multistoried hostel building to another new building we will not object." He said the MCI guidelines will also not be violated as freshers and seniors would be housed in different floors and block of the new multistoried building now.

The indefinite fast was launched by six students of the premier institute on July 10. They were joined by 15 others on July 19. The agitation was withdrawn at 2 pm this noon.

Three of the protesting students fell ill during the indefinite hunger strike and one of them had been admitted to the hospital. He was discharged today and the condition of the other two is stable.

The hunger strike over hostel rooms was launched after the authorities at the state-run college notified that the new 11-storey building would be allotted only to freshers and refused to relent to the requests of the senior students.

Today's college council meeting had been convened by the new officiating principal Ashok Bhadra and was attended by heads of departments and hostel superintendents, PWD and student representatives.

The Director of Medical Education (DME) Debashis Bhattacharya and the college principal had appealed to the students to end the stir yesterday.

The DME had in a statement assured the students that measures were being taken to improve and renovate the hostel rooms and requested them to withdraw the hunger strike.

Several health organizations affiliated to Left parties held a convention yesterday in front of the administrative block in support of the agitating students.

Thespian Soumitra Chatterjee in an audio message on Sunday had alleged that the administration was not sensitive to the condition of the protesters and said that the students had to resort to fast to press for their rights is unfortunate.
Poet Sankha Ghosh had also expressed concern over the indefinite fast by the students and said their demand should be looked into.