Furious students block traffic for four hours

Vijay Deo Jha/Shruti Sahay | RANCHI | Saturday, June 26, 2010

College students and activists of the students’ union surged on the Ranchi University on Friday forcing shutdown and disrupting traffic for around four hours.

Unions like NSUI, ABVP, Jharkhand Chatra Morcha, Jharkhand Chatra Vikas Morcha, Student’s union AJSU and others held a joint demonstration in front of the university gate alleging RU administration for not taking any step to regularise their classes in the past three months in the wake of the strike of the non-teaching staff of the university.

Those who triggered rampage, though, are not listed as the regular attendee of the classes but they held placards to tell the problem faced by students in filling up the admission and examination forms.

At 10.30 am, NSUI activist tried to barge on the RU campus and blocked the narrow road connecting Firayalal Chowk to the Kutchery for four hours. They prevented RU Vice-Chancellor AA Khan, Vice-Chancellor and Pro-VC, VP Sharan from entering the university gates. The officials tried to pacify students, who were in no mood to relent.

RU Vice-Chancellor is scheduled to meet Governor’s adviser VS Dubey to resolve the issue of strike of the non-teaching strike on Saturday.

Partially accepting the problem of students, Khan said that students have been facing problem in filling up examination and admission forms which can be downloaded through internet. “We are trying to solve the problem. Yes, there is staff crunch due to the strike. The university has many days to scrutinise the forms. But teaching except in Intermediate classes are not hampered. RU is not responsible for this. It falls under the jurisdiction of the Jharkhand Academic Council,” Khan said.

For hours the university gate remained the centre of student’s unrest — sloganeering and burning tyres as the mark of protest. Around 2.30 pm, City SP, Shambhu Thakur along with Law and Order ADM, Debar Jonko and Executive Magistrate, Narendra Kumar Gupta reached the spot and appealed to the students to sit across the table. They demanded that the Director Higher Education Anjani Kumar Srivastava should meet them.

Director Higher Education probably had nothing to do with their complaints. “It seems that the non-teaching staffs not satisfied over few points after their salary was fixed in accordance with the recommendation of the Fifth pay Commission. But the HRD refused some of their demands, including that of sanctioned post. Non-teaching staff association used students force to pressurise the Government and the RU,” a senior HRD officer said.

Late on Friday evening, a delegation of NSUI leaders met Srivastava. It was decided to hold joint meeting of the representatives of the non-teaching staffs, leaders of the students union and RU official on Saturday to discuss the issue.

Meanwhile, the ABVP has called the meeting of State representatives on Saturday to decide on their programme to intensify the agitation.

“If the issue is not resolved in a couple of days, the ABVP will gherao the Raj Bahvan in the coming days,” Suman Kumar, ABVP general secretary said.

In the last five days, students’ unrest has spread from one college to another starting from SS Memorial to the campus of RU getting murkier with each passing day.