LPG Shortage Forces Pondicherry Central University to Advance Exams; Students Protest Abrupt Academic Overhaul

Puducherry: The University of Pondicherry, a central university, has been plunged into an academic crisis following the acute LPG shortage gripping the country, with the administration unilaterally advancing examinations and drastically curtailing the academic calendar — a move that has triggered protests from students.

Citing global supply disruptions and the domestic cooking gas shortage, the Vice Chancellor issued orders that all academic activities, including the declaration of results, be completed by May 1, 2026. Accordingly, semester examinations for senior batches of undergraduate and postgraduate programs — originally scheduled between May 6 and 15 — have been preponed to April 21–30. First-year students will now sit for examinations from April 24, concluding by April 30. The revised schedule results in the loss of 11 study holidays for senior batches and 20 for first-year students.

The university has also cancelled all internal examinations, directing that continuous assessment be based solely on seminars and assignments. To complete syllabi within the compressed timeframe, Saturdays have been designated working days, up to 20 per cent of classes have been permitted to be conducted online, and departments have been advised to hold classes on Sundays if required.

The Students' Federation of India (SFI) denounced the changes as academically destructive, characterising them as arbitrary and highhanded. The protest statement contended that incidents of this nature exposed as hollow the central government's and Prime Minister Narendra Modi's repeated assurances that there is no LPG shortage in the country.

The prevailing fuel and gas crisis is the consequence of the Modi government's capitulation to American pressure, and that the university administration was effectively transferring the burden of the BJP government's policy failures onto students.