Students of K. L. University staged a protest on Monday following the death of a student G. Nanda Kumar in a road accident on April 4 and a suicide attempt by another girl, said to be a friend of the accident victim. The girl, also a first year engineering student, attempted suicide yesterday night.
Hundreds of engineering college students of the university came on to the roads at Kunchanapalli centre on the Vijayawada-Guntur Highway demanding that the university authorities take action against the women’s hostel warden, following the student’s suicide attempt.
Some students stopped the university buses at Kunchanapalli centre and squatted on the road causing a huge traffic jam.
They raised slogans and demanded that college chairman Koneru Harin come to them and listen to their woes.
They stopped traffic until Circle Inspector B. Hari Krishna promised to book a case against the warden.
The students told The Hindu that the first year engineering student consumed Dettol mixed with nail polish after the warden made insulting remarks about her character with regard to her friendship with Nanda Kumar, who had died in the accident. The girl is in ICU of a private hospital in Vijayawada.
They further alleged that ill-treatment of students by the faculty was not new and claimed that two other girls had attempted suicide in the past after they were reprimanded by the lecturers.
Tadepalli SI D. Naresh Kumar said Nanda Kumar, who lived in a private hostel in Kunchanapalli, was rushing to pay his exam fee on his motorbike, when he met with an accident after a speeding auto-rickshaw hit him.
Even before he could get up another loaded auto-rickshaw ran over him.
The students alleged that a couple of lecturers instead of shifting Nanda to a hospital, were keen on taking away his ID card.
Circle Inspector Hari Krishna said the main demands of the students included initiating action against the warden, putting up speed-breakers and ensuring proper street lighting on the road to KLU and make an ambulance available round-the-clock.
Meanwhile, the agitating students feared victimisation from the college management. A few of them said that the staff members were clicking their photographs using mobile phones.
