BENGALURU: Six students of Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU), who have been on a hunger strike demanding exemption from the ‘Critical year back system’ at least for this year, have been admitted to KC General Hospital after they fell sick here on Monday. Eighty students have been on a hunger strike at Mourya Circle in the city since November 11.
Dr H Ravikumar, Medical Superintendent, KC General Hospital, said, “The students are stable. They just had dehydration and weakness. Three of them have been discharged against medical advice.”
The students are seeking exemption, citing the huge number of applications received for revaluation this year. This is because of erring evaluation, a student of Atria College of Engineering said.
“This year, VTU received over two lakh applications for revaluation and that shows how irresponsible the evaluators are. We are demanding for exemption at least for this year,” the student said.
“We are seeking exemption only for this year as the number of failed students is high,” said Yogendra Pratap Singh of Acharya Institute of Technology.
However, before taking part in the hunger strike, all the students have written a note stating that the strike is against ‘critical year back system’. They also mentioned that if they don’t get justice and if anything happens to them during the protest, the Vice-chancellor and the Registrar (evaluation) will be responsible.
What is critical year back system?
If a student fails even in a single subject in the first year, he will not be allowed to attend third year classes. And if there are backlog subjects in second year, students will not be allowed to enter fourth year.