New Delhi: As the tussle between the Delhi University Teachers' Association (DUTA) and the Delhi University (DU) administration over the semester system continues, it is the students who are being made to suffer.

Classes at DU were disrupted on Tuesday as around 1,000 teachers from the varsity demonstrated against the implementation of the semester system outside the office of DU Vice Chancellor Deepak Pental. The teachers have alleged that the semester system has been implemented forcefully in the science courses by the DU administration.

It has been a month since classes began at the university. However, the DU administration as well as DUTA have failed to resolve the issue and hence, the students at the varsity are suffering because several teachers refuse to teach.

DUTA has announced that the protest in front of the VC's office was part of a plan to hold a series of demonstrations, strikes, symposiums and dharnas that will be held till August 31.

DUTA president Aditya Narayan Mishra has said that after the demonstration held on Tuesday, DUTA is planning protest against the issue of negative service conditions for varsity teachers by holding a march to the Parliament on August 19.

Also, DU teachers would be observing a total strike against the semester system on August 23 and 24 and a symposium for the issue will be held in August 25. "We will also organize a relay dharna on August 26, 27, 30 and 31 in front of the Vice Chancellor's office to protest against how he has forcefully implemented the semester system for undergraduate science courses," he said.

As most of the demonstrations and other activities to protest against the implementation of the semester system have been organized by DUTA on working days, this comes as bad news for SU students as their classes would be disrupted.

Some colleges where teachers did not participate in the protests, but instead chose to conduct regular classes for students include St. Stephen's, Indraprastha College, Lady Shri Ram College and Dyal Singh College.