Shillong, Nov 13 (Reporter) Agitating students demanding resignation of Vice-Chancellor of the North Eastern Hill University Prof. Prabha Shankar Shukla, continued their hunger strike, which has entered the ninth day on Wednesday, even as an advocate requested the Meghalaya High Court to take suo motu cognisance of the current crisis in the central university. On the other hand, the VC, who had not attended office since November 11, on Wednesday appointed Prof. Sherwin May Sungoh, Department of Education, as Pro-Vice Chancellor of the NEHU Shillong campus and Prof. Fameline K. Marak, Department of Garo, as Pro-Vice Chancellor of the NEHU Tura campus, subject to approval of the Executive Council of the NEHU. Phuyosa Yobin, an advocate, brought to the notice of the division bench of the Meghalaya High Court on Wednesday and requested to pass appropriate orders to restore normalcy and for the smooth running of the University. However, the bench, comprising Chief Justice I.P. Mukerji and Justice B. Bhattacharjee, observed that the state government has made some recommendations to the Central government to resolve the acute problems the university is facing. "As the administration of the University is controlled by the Central government, we are minded to give some more time to it to resolve the issue. If the problems persist till the returnable date, we shall consider taking suo motu cognisance of the affairs and decide the matter accordingly,” the bench said. In the meantime, the Court also directed the petitioner to communicate this order to all stakeholders including the Central and state governments, the Vice Chancellor, the employees’ and students’ unions. The matter would be heard again on November 20. “We will not withdraw our indefinite hunger strike until the VC resigned or the central government terminate him at him. We want a better VC to lead NEHU as the incumbent VC has totally failed and the university’s ranking has plummeted to range between 100 and 150,”NEHUSU President, Sandy Sohtun said. NEHU was among the top 60 universities in India before Prof. Shukla was appointed about three years ago. “Even if the government asked him (VC Shukla) to go on long leave, we would not accept it, but we would rather intensify our protest to force the government to terminate him,” Sohtun said, adding that it is up to the central government to decide on our demand. The NEHUSU and Khasi Students’ Union (KSU -NEHU Unit) had submitted a joint petition to President Droupadi Murmu, who is also Visitor of NEHU, to take swift and appropriate action to address these concerns and ensure that the university functions smoothly in the best interest of its students. Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, who has been briefed by Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad Sangma on the current crisis in NEHU, had assured Sangma to find a resolution to the impasse. Meghalaya Governor, CH Viyashankar, who is the Chief Rector of the University, has also appealed to the students to call off their strike and has assured that he would try to resolve the current impasse...////...