KOLKATA: Tempers ran high on the NRS Medical College and Hospital campus on Thursday — four days after a couple of nurses battered 16 puppies to death — as the nursing students boycotted classes, prevented staffers from joining duty, held relay demonstrations on the hostel premises and chased away senior hospital officials, including the vice-principal and the nursing superintendent, out of a meeting while they were trying to solve the stalemate.To escape the wrath of the agitating students, the medical superintendent and his deputy were driven out of the campus in separate police cars while the nursing superintendent ran and hid inside the staff quarter.“We held a one-hour-long discussion with the nurses at the Lecture Hall with 250 odd students, who have been agitating since Wednesday night demanding removal of all dogs from the premises and revoking the suspension of the nurses who have been named in the puppy lynching case . We made them understand that no decision on suspension had yet been taken and that only the nursing council can take a call. We also told them that we had already asked the KMC to sterilize and vaccinate the dogs on the campus and construct high railings around the hostel to prevent entry of dogs. But we have informed them that as per the Supreme Court guideline, we cannot relocate dogs anywhere,” said Dwaipayan Biswas, the deputy superintendent of the hospital.Hospital officials said the meeting was almost ending on a peaceful note when a group of outsiders — mostly senior nursing students from other colleges affiliated to different unions — entered the hall and tried to gherao senior officials. The cops followed them to the hall and tried to rescue the officials safely out of the building. The students chased them and banged on the police cars while they were being taken out of the hospital. Nursing superintent Manisha Ghosh had to run towards another section of the campus and had to take refuge inside a staff quarter as cops stood guard outside to protect her.“Things were going smoothly when there was an interruption from outside all of a sudden. A group started instigating the students and threatened to gherao us inside the building. It was then that the cops entered and safely escorted us out. However, we will not budge under such pressure politics by the students and the outsiders,” said Biswas.Since Thursday morning, the nursing students boycotted classes, sat in a demonstration at the NRS nursing hostel and prevented the staff nurses from joining their duty. As a result, daily work at the hospital started taking a toll. Senior officials asked the students to sit in a discussion with them regarding the issue. Later in the afternoon, it was decided that the hospital authorities would meet the students at the Lecture Hall.“The two students are already facing police trial, then why would the college authorities punish them by not allowing them entry on the campus or allowing them to attend classes? Why would they face double punishment for one offence? The authorities are not willing to understand the trouble we face because of the dogs. They need to revoke the suspension and allow them to resume classes as they have been bailed out,” said a third-year nursing student.Earlier in the day, central minister for women & child development Maneka Gandhi called up the principal of NRS College and Hospital and informed him that she had already filed a complaint with the Central Nurses’ Council and if the Bengal unit of the council does not expel the nurses, she would even voice for cancellation of licence for NRS hospital.

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