The vice-chancellor of the Visva Bharati University in West Bengal's Birbhum district has alleged that students have locked the main gate of the varsity.

V-C Bidyut Chakrabarty said the students were protesting against the 20 per cent hike in the cost of admission forms on Tuesday, a section of the student’s even gheraoed the V-C and senior teachers and officials. According to Chakrabarty, some 200 teachers and staff are still inside the university campus as the gate has been locked by the students. He described the behaviour of the students as saddening.

"Saddened by students' behaviour. Yesterday, we had a 5-hour discussion with them," the V-C was quoted as saying by ANI.

West Bengal:Visva-Bharati University students in Birbhum protesting against 20% fee hike allegedly locked the gate of the university y'day,200 teachers&staff are still inside university premises. VC says, "Saddened by students' behavior. Y'day, we had 5-hour discussion with them" pic.twitter.com/GqvL9Q0cD2

— ANI (@ANI) May 22, 2019

A report in The Telegraph said the students studying in undergraduate and postgraduate courses started protesting in an auditorium inside the campus at around 5 pm. The students' protest has been going on for over a week now.

The university has defended the hike in the cost of admission forms for various courses. Varsity PRO Anirban Sircar was reported as saying that they have increased the charges as part of the exercise to become self-dependent.

“We have been asked by the ministry of human resource development to become self-dependent. The increase in the charges is part of that exercise,” Sircar said.

The students have been protesting against the hike for the past 10 days. On Tuesday, the VC called a meeting with officials and students’ representatives at the Lipika auditorium to discuss the issue. Sources said the students had stuck to their demand to roll back the hike.

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