Kolkata, Mar 11 (PTI) The stalemate in Visva-Bharati university continued on Friday as students boycotted the offline semester exams, demanding immediate reopening of hostels.

Vice-Chancellor Bidyut Chakraborty, however, described a section of the agitators as “outsiders”, whose aim is to stall the functioning of academic and administrative work in the central varsity.

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SFI leader Somnath Sow told PTI that 70 students, scheduled to sit for their semester examinations in various departments, did not take the tests in solidarity with the agitating students, who were yet to get inside their hostel rooms.

A varsity official said some of the hostels were being reopened in phases from Wednesday, but the protesting students prevented the boarders from entering the hostel.

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Sow said there are around 30 hostels in Visva-Bharati situated in West Bengal's Birbhum district, and also claimed that none of those has been made ready for accommodating students.

In a statement issued on Thursday evening, the vice-chancellor had said: "Please save Visva-Bharati from elements who want to stall its academic functioning, who are out to create an impasse, who don't want Visva-Bharati to shine.”

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)