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IIT-J students take out candle march;demand director's removal

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Press Trust of India Jodhpur
Agitating students of the IIT Jodhpur, demanding removal of its director for his "dictatorial attitude", took out a candle march at the residential complex of the institute today, the fifth day of their protest.

The students have been agitating against a recently-passed Code of Conduct, which prevents them from speaking to media about the institute and "on controversial topics".

Students put on black dresses as a mark of protest against the director, C R R Murti, and handed him rose flowers appealing him to resign from the post.

"We offered our director rose flowers appealing him to leave for the sake of (betterment of) the institution and bring it back on the path of progress," said a student, adding that they have also taken to the social media to muster support to their agitation.
 

Terming the director as a dictator, the students have launched a campaign on Twitter with a hashtag "dictator free IIT Jodhpur".

"This has been trending in top 10 tweets and has received over 70,000 tweets," said a student.

But to scuttle the social media campaign, the administration has censored the wi-fi network in the campus, he said.

Before this, the IIT administration appealed all the students and also the faculties, who have been endorsing this agitation, to resume the classes but students have decided to continue their protest until their demand is met.

"We will continue our agitation until the director is not removed," said a student.

Students have also been protesting closing down of two such courses, the System Science and Inspired Science, which were unique to this institution and had received appreciation and attention from the academia.

Justifying it, the spokesperson of the IIT-J, Amandeep Sharma said the courses had been introduced without any proper curriculum and planning.

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First Published: Apr 04 2015 | 9:02 PM IST

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