The Hindu : No room for political mileage, say students

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Sep 07, 2002

Southern States

Southern States - Tamil Nadu

No room for political mileage, say students

By R. Krishnamoorthy

MADURAI SEPT. 6. The student community today assailed the Chief Minister, Jayalalithaa, for her statement that the unrest over the move to make the 67 government colleges constituent units of universities was ``politically motivated.''

The Students Federation of India president, K. Thangamohan, who led the rally taken out by students of the Government Arts College from their institution to the taluk office at Melur, said the students were not naive not to understand the consequences of the Government's move, which, he pointed out, would distance higher education from the poor.

Though support from political parties was welcome, the students would not permit anybody to derive political mileage from the struggle, he said, before presenting a memorandum containing the students' demands to the Melur tahsildar.

All along the route, hundreds of police personnel, led by the Superintendent of Police, Avi Prakash, accompanied the students.

Commotion at hospital

Earlier in the day, there was commotion at the Melur Government Hospital as seven among the seventeen students admitted there for injuries caused by the police lathicharge on Tuesday were ``forcibly'' asked to vacate the hospital by the authorities. An immediate protest by students in front of the hospital prompted the authorities to withdraw their move.

Senthil Kumar, a blind student, who sustained head injuries in the lathicharge, said he was asked to come once in two days as an outpatient, while another student, Mahalingam, stated that a duty doctor removed the bandages forcibly despite his protest. However, the Chief Medical Officer, S. Jayam, claimed that only those students with simple convulsions were discharged.

The direction by the hospital authorities to the students to leave the premises had come a day after the police had threatened the students with dire consequences if they did not get discharged.

The DMK youth wing organiser, N. Siva, after meeting the students at the hospital, said the Government should shed its obstinacy and deal with the students' problems in a realistic manner. He condemned the lack of attention to the injured students and said the DMK would organise agitation throughout the State on September 11, supporting the students' cause.

Meanwhile, students held an agitation at the North-West Masi Street Junction in the city, led by Sunitha, president, Meenakshi Government College Students Peravai. Students of Senthamil College, Madurai Kamaraj University, MKU College, Law College and the Madura College also held agitations separately. No agitation was reported in Sivaganga and Virudhunagar districts.

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