Since last few days I have been
getting messages from my friends from various colleges asking me about what is
going on in my college. Courtesy highly alert college authorities of my college
of national importance. With great dismay I disclose to them the sad news of
bereavement of one of my college mate Prosenjit Sarkar, whose untimely death
could have been avoided only if our college’s Medical Unit would have been a
bit more functional. The events that ensued this unfortunate incident were even
more grim. Our director didn’t take any responsibility for his death, he even
didn’t find it fit to at least address the students regarding this matter. As a
result of his sheer apathy, students started an indefinite strike which would only be terminated if
the director resigned and the medical staff is renewed. This strike was not
only because of Prosenjit, rather it was sparked by it. Resentment and
agitation had been boiling among students since a long time. There have been
days when there is no drinking water in hostel. The receptionist at MU is so
rude that once she refused my room-mate to give medicines for common cold
because he was wearing a half t-shirt. I have been in college for three years
and there are many buildings which are being constructed but none is finished,
and those which were finished before my arrival are till now not opened because
of unknown reasons. The list is endless……these all things together culminated
to this strike.
I shared this all with my friends
and to my surprise, they all recited similar stories from their colleges. The
irony is that, just like me, most of them also hail from so called institutes
of national importance. One from a premier private institute said that some of
his friends were rusticated because of sharing an online poll that whether
college rules are very strict. One complained about the infrastructure of his
college being in deplorable condition. What can be regarded as the epitome of
irony, one student told me about the death of a fourth year MBBS student due to
medical negligence in a medical college!!
In our protest, we took the help
of twitter to reach to MHRD minister for help and highly appreciate the fact
that she responded positively and in next couple of days two MHRD officials
visited our college to probe into the case. But my question is that…..why wait
for a fire to dig a well? Why should an innocent life be lost for a change? Why
should we wait for the doctors to do some utter blunder that could cost someone’s
life before replacing them? Is there not any audit office assigned to keep
vigil on the condition of colleges? Had there been, many calamities could have
been avoided. Should we wait for the dirty watercoolers to spread food
poisoning before getting them changed? Should we wait for the cracked ceiling
to fall on someone before getting repaired? Why should we wait? For how long?
#JusticeForProsenjit
