Students of a private college in the city undertook cleaning work at the Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Government Hospital on Saturday following a Madras High Court directive .
Twenty eight students were ordered to clean the hospital premises as a corrective measure after they were arrested in a case of campus violence using beer bottles and wooden logs on July 28, 2019 where at least five students sustained injuries. The order was given by Justice A.D. Jagadish Chandira of the Madurai bench of the Madras High Court after the students submitted a plea to quash the FIR registered against them.
K. Vanitha, dean, MGMGH, said that the students, all belonging to Oxford Engineering College, had undergone an hour of counselling at the Department of Psychiatry before undertaking the cleaning work. “They have understood their mistakes and have shown regret. To show them the uncertainty of life, I also took them to meet some patients of road accidents admitted in the ICU,” she said.
The students began cleaning the campus of dried leaves and garbage and will also clean the general ward later on in the day, Dr. Vanitha said. “They have also shown interest in donating blood. We will make arrangements to do that at the blood bank in the evening,” she said.
