'DU To Reopen on 17 Feb,' Announces Proctor After Protests by Students

The All India Students' Association had said that they would not end their protest until the varsity was reopened.

Members of various student organisations hold placards as they stage a protest demanding the reopening of the Delhi University, outside Arts Faculty, in New Delhi, Tuesday.

(Photo: Vijay Verma/PTI)

Delhi University is slated to reopen on 17 February, Proctor Professor Rajni Abbi had announced on Wednesday, 9 February. A few hours after the announcement, an official order was issued by the DU registrar office, stating that offline classes for all undergraduate and postgraduate courses would begin on the said date.

Abbi stated that the only reason the decision was delayed after the Delhi Disaster Management Authority announcement was that "we want to reopen the university properly."

The DDMA had released a directive, giving the go for the reopening of colleges in the national capital.

"If all those students who stay outside come to the city and don't get accommodation in hostels or PGs, then would they would be left on the streets?"

Delhi University Proctor

She added that the administration was in talks with college principals.

"It is not like we do not understand your pain. If you have not come for classes for 2 years, we have been teaching online too. And we do not like it either," the Proctor added.

The order read, "The outstation students are advised to plan reaching Delhi in such a manner that they are able to complete the isolation period of three days before reporting to their respective Colleges/Departments."

It added that libraries and canteens would start functioning on 17 February too, but while strictly adhering to protocol.

Deans, HODs, principals, directors, and provosts were asked to ensure that teaching, non-teaching staff, and students were strictly adhering to protocol. They were also asked to ensure that hostels were properly sanitised and ventilated. They were further directed to ensure that staff and students get vaccinated at the earliest if they had not already done so.

Students Stage Protests, Demand Reopening of Campus

The announcement comes after the students staged demonstrations demanding the resumption of physical classes at Delhi University's North Campus.

On Monday, scores of students staged a protest in front of varsity Vice-Chancellor Yogesh Singh's office as they pushed for their demand.

Kicked off by the Students Federation of India (SFI) and All India Students' Association (AISA), who had taken to Twitter as well as the streets on Monday to mark their protest, the agitation later included other student unions, both left-wing and right-wing.

ABVP's National Media Convenor, Siddharth Yadav, who was present during one of the protests on Wednesday, said, "We were protesting continuously for the last three days demanding reopening of Delhi University, and for which our karyakartas were also sitting on fast since yesterday. ABVP has been fighting for the last two years to get the campus reopened and we are glad that this fight has come to an end. It is a victory for every student of the university. We congratulate all the students for reopening of the university.”

The Delhi University Student's Union (DUSU) issued a similar statement, taking credit for the reopening of the campus.

"We were protesting continuously for a long time for reopening of Delhi University, in which students also accompanied us in large numbers, sitting on indefinite hunger strike since yesterday. DUSU has been fighting for the last two years to get the campus opened and we are glad that this fight has come to an end. It is a victory for every student of the university. We congratulate all the students for reopening the university and we will look forward to create various leadership opportunities for our students,” the DUSU statement read.

Meanwhile, AISA responded to the announcement saying, "Thousands of students have boycotted their classes in solidarity with AISA's Chakka Jaam for three days. Hundreds of students protested with us in the fight for their campus. AISA will continue its attempts in assisting and helping all the students who will be returning to Delhi and raise their voice against the anti education policies that are being pushed onto the University!"

(With inputs from ANI.)