The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Violence once again at Sathyabama varsity

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Mar 24, 2006

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Violence once again at Sathyabama varsity

Staff Reporter

Glass panes of class, hostel rooms broken; thatched roof set on fire

CHENNAI: After a day's lull, students of the Sathyabama Deemed University on Old Mahabalipuram Road here resumed their agitation on Thursday.

Police said a section of students damaged glass panes of 16 classrooms, five hostel rooms, a projector room and a bakery. Miscreants also set on fire a massive thatched roof, erected for holding a meeting on the college premises.

A senior police officer said that around 9 a.m., a group of students were reportedly roughed up by the college's security personnel when they went to meet the authorities. When news of the incident spread, students started gathering in large numbers. Police personnel stationed outside the college premises went in when miscreants tried to set afire the thatched roof.

Even as the police chased them away, another group set fire to the roof. The fire was put out around 11.30 a.m. by fire tenders from Tiruvanmiyur, Tambaram and Maraimalai Nagar. Following the incident, a tense situation prevailed on the premises.

Irate students turned their ire against media personnel.

A woman TV journalist said some students called their office, and wanted the channel to cover the agitation. Security personnel asked the journalist and her crew not to go inside, but they were escorted inside by a group of students. But another group ordered them not to shoot anything inside. The journalist said that though they had not recorded anything, the students insisted that the tape be handed over to them. Similarly, a senior photographer who went to the college said the students ordered that they did not want pictures taken.

Attempts to reach the management authorities proved unsuccessful. The Students' Federation of India (SFI) has condemned the violence on the deemed university campus, and charged the management with "engaging thugs to unleash violence in the hitherto peaceful demonstration of students."

In a press release, the SFI State secretary, G. Selva, said the management, besides suppressing the rights of students within the campus, was attempting to divert the issue by resorting to violence.

Criticising the State Government for remaining a mute spectator, to the issue, he urged educational authorities of the State and Central educational authorities, Governments, the University Grants Commission, the AICTE All-India Council for Technical Education and the Anna University to sit together and find a solution to the problem.

An announcement by the State Government that it would take responsibility to resolve the issue alone would bring an end to the students' unrest, Mr. Selva added.

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