BASE students end protest after minister promise action

Students of Dr B R Ambedkar School of Economics (BASE), protesting over the past week against the management, has decided to call off the protest after higher education minister G T Deve Gowda and social welfare minister Priyank Kharge promised to solve the issue at the earliest.

Ten students from BASE met both the ministers on Monday and narrated the problems they are facing.

The ministers gave a patient hearing and promised to interact with all the students of
the institution on Sunday, while requesting to end their protest.

“We were convinced by the response of the ministers. So for now, we are pausing our protest, if the issues are not addressed in the given time, we will resume our protest,” a student told DH.

Students were firm on their demand that the chief executive officer (CEO) and the controller of examinations (COE) of the institute be removed. They also demanded the appointment for the particular posts be done based on the norms of the University Grants Commission (UGC), as the current COE is allegedly not qualified.

“Being an affiliated institution and not an autonomous college, the post of COE is not required in the first place.
For affiliated institutions, a faculty member is given the additional charge of the chief executive officer. And if at all a COE is to be
appointed, he must have at least 15 years of teaching experience as an assistant professor or eight years of teaching experience and three years of administrative experience,” the students further demanded.