Delhi University’s Dyal Singh College (Evening),which since the past few months has been functioning as a day college, renamed itself after India’s national song Vande Mataram.

The Governing Body of Dyal Singh College (DSC) changed the name of the varsity to Vande Mataram Mahavidyalaya and passed the decision to change evening shift timings to regular day college.

Amitabh Sinha, Chairperson of governing body of Dyal Singh College, said on Saturday that the decision was taken to overcome the confusion in the name. A notification to change the name was issued on November 17 and has been sent to the Vice Chancellor for his approval.

“There were two colleges in Dyal Singh College. One was day and other was evening. The evening shift students were rated as second grade students. They used to face difficulties even while seeking jobs. That’s why the governing body converted it into a day college,” Sinha

After the decision, both –morning and evening– sessions of the college will function simultaneously.

Dyal Singh (Evening) College was given a nod by the Delhi University (DU) Executive Council (EC) to be converted into a morning college in July, leading to protests by the faculty of the morning college. The evening college began holding morning classes for first year students from July 20, till the time it is able to operate as a full-fledged morning college.

The issue became controversial after the National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) criticised the renaming of the college and said, the it has been done in a hasty manner to distract the students from relevant questions on education governance and accused the governing body of “disgracing the legacy” of Punjab’s first freedom fighter – Sardar Dyal Singh Majithia.

The decision to merge evening college with morning college was also condemned by students and teachers from the original morning session citing that the infrastructure of the college will not be able to support operations of both the sessions simultaneously.

Currently, the colleges are sharing a campus space of eight acres.

(With agency inputs)