Shillong, Nov 20 (IANS) Agitating students of North Eastern Hill University (NEHU) here have temporarily suspended their indefinite hunger strike after 16 days of protest owing to their deteriorating health conditions.

The students of NEHU, the Northeast's oldest Central varsity in Shillong, started their hunger strike on November 5 demanding the removal of "incompetent" Vice-Chancellor (V-C) Prabha Shankar Shukla and "illegally" appointed top officials, including Registrar Colonel (retired) Omkar Singh and Deputy Registrar Amit Gupta.

Announcing the suspension of the hunger strike on Wednesday evening, NEHU Students' Union (NEHUSU) President, Sandy Sohtun, said that after appeals from the state government and many other quarters including teachers, community members, and doctors, they suspended their hunger strike but the university would remain closed and classes would remain suspended as their protest is not over since their core demands were not fulfilled.

"The agitation would continue, although in a curtailed manner. We would hold a sit-in protest on weekdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. in front of the V-C's office," he told the media.

NEHUSU General Secretary Toniho S. Kharsati also said that this is a temporary suspension of their hunger strike pending the inquiry committee submitting its findings and recommendations on their charter of demands to the Ministry of Education.

The NEHUSU has been spearheading the protest and it was supported by the influential North East Students' Organisation (NESO), an apex body of eight students' organisations representing seven northeastern states, Khasi Students Union's NEHU unit and the Meghalaya Tribal Teachers' Association are also supporting the protest.

The NEHU is the northeast's oldest Central varsity in Shillong and students from all the eight northeastern states, many states in the country and more than seven countries have been studying in the institution.

The Ministry of Education, earlier, formed the two-member inquiry committee headed by former University Grants Commission (UGC) Chairman D. P. Singh, with former Assam University Vice Chancellor Dilip Chandra Nath as the member.

The Ministry has asked the committee to investigate the allegations of the students and others and submit recommendations within 15 days.

The committee members, according to the officials, are expected to arrive in Shillong by Wednesday or Thursday.

Meghalaya Education Minister Rakkam Sangma earlier said that Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma had already spoken with Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on the stalemate in NEHU and the UGC has constituted a committee to look into the details of the issues.

The strike would also affect their academic activities, the Minister said.

A host of dignitaries and politicians earlier met the agitating students on the NEHU campus and spoke to them.

Earlier, Meghalaya Governor and the NEHU's Chief Rector Chandrashekhar H. Vijayashankar, Chief Minister Sangma appealed to the agitating students to halt their protest.

The NEHU students also wrote a letter to President Droupadi Murmu detailing the situation in the varsity and sought her intervention to resolve the ongoing imbroglio.

Before going on leave last week, V-C Shukla on several occasions, urged the students to call off their protest and hold talks so that normal academic activities could be resumed in the university.

NEHUSU General Secretary said that due to the incompetence of all top varsity officials, including the V-C, NEHU's rank has slipped 21 points to 101 in the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) ranking.