Students, faculty, non-teaching staff and members of the Save Avinashilingam University movement on Sunday staged a protest urging the University Grants Commission to take over the institution’s administration.
The protestors, who were joined by former State Secretary, Communist Party of India-Marxist, R. Nallakannu and former Member of Parliament, Coimbatore, P.R. Natarajan, said that the management of the Avinashilingam University, which used tax-payers’ money to run the institution, should abide by the rules the UGC had framed.
For the past 28 years, the UGC funded the Avinashilingam University making it the one of the kind institution in Tamil Nadu. The university last year received Rs. 55 crore in grants and aid. All this remained threatened with the university management showing reluctance in confirming with the UGC norms. The protestors said this year the UGC promised to cut by five per cent the grants it gave the university. Therefore, given the circumstances, the issue cannot be confined categorised as something that affected only the management and staff.
