BHU Chief Proctor Resigns Over Moral Grounds

Following the mass protests led by Benaras Hindu University girls, the Chief Proctor, Onkar Nath Singh, submitted his resignation to the Vice Chancellor, Girish Chandra Tripathi on Wednesday. Singh allegedly walked out on moral grounds taking full responsibility for the violence that took place on the university campus during the protest.

He resigned four hours after the National Human Rights Commission gave UP Police and BHU VC four weeks time to submit a report on the alleged molestation of a first-year student on campus. NHRC also asked the UP Police to submit a report on police action during the protest between Sept. 21 and 23.

 Dr Mahendra Kumar Singh took over from Singh as Chief Proctor, ANI reports.

In a statement, NHRC said that it has taken suo motu cognizance of the “alleged inaction” by BHU on the harassment complaint by a student and violent action that police took during the protest.

UP CM Adityanath also spoke on the matter. He said that the government instructed the university administration to deal strictly with anti-social elements in the campus, Scroll reported. On 24th Sept. he said, " I have sought a report from the Divisional Commissioner, Varanasi, about the entire incident"

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“We are going to give the report of this entire incident to the Central government also,” he added.

On Tuesday, Divisional Commissioner of Varanasi, Nitin Gokarn, condemned the BHU administration for the violence in a preliminary report. And took cognizance of the fact that it ignored the complainant's plea.

BHU is at a boiling point with protests stirring in the campus since Friday last week i.e. September 22. On Thursday evening, a student complained of eve-teasing by three bike-borne students to the hostel warden and administration. The administration in turn allegedly started victim-shaming her by asking why was she out in the evening. Reports say that she also called the security guard to protect her, but they ignored her plea.

Following this, university girls gathered in front of the campus front gate and protested against sexual harassment on campus. On Saturday, the city police started lathi-charge on the girls injuring a few girls who attended the protest.

Picture credit- Indian Express