AU colleges feel left out, protest

From: Times of India, India - Nov 13, 2003

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

ALLAHABAD : Violent protests by agitating staff and students of the colleges associated to the Allahabad University , who were demanding affiliation with the university as per norms set by the Delhi University , kept the police on their toes all over the city on Thursday.

One girl trainee teacher was killed in a freak accident during one such melee near the CMP Degree College .

Students also went on a rampage at the Ewing Christian College (ECC) and the Allahabad Degree College (ADC), resulting in injuries to several students, journalists and police personnel.

The agitationists also damaged several government and private vehicles before police perforce dispersed them.

The girl, a trainee teacher at the Deaf and Dumb School in George Town , was run over by a bus (no UP 70-9681), whose driver panicked and lost control over the vehicle after the protestors pelted stones on it near the CMP Degree College under the George Town police station.

The girl, who was going on a bicycle, was hit from behind. She was rushed to the Swaroop Rani Hospital by the police where she was pronounced dead. She was later identified as Renu, 22, a resident of Pura Baldi under Kydganj police station.

Enraged over the incident, students set up a road blockade in front of the college gates and resorted to stone pelting.

Also, members of the Allahabad University Associated College Teachers Association (AUACTA), alongwith students of different degree colleges, had earlier decided to stage demonstration upon arrival of Union HRD minister MM Joshi in the city on Thursday morning, and had gathered outside the minister's Tagore Town residence here.

President of the association Ram Muni Pandey, said that their demand was affiliation of associated degree colleges to the univeristy as was the case with the Delhi University .

"However, the government is non-committal in this regard. This has left the teachers and students in a state of uncertainty," he claimed.

The ECC students, who had gathered to hold a meeting to decide on the issue of which degree would be awarded to them in case AU was accorded a Central university status, went on a rampage after a chemistry department teacher Satyendra Singh allegedly lodged a protest against principal M Massey's address to the students and teachers.

The principal, in a letter to vice-chancellor GK Mehta, had sought a clarification in this regard saying "pending this answer, I may be forced to close the college sine die so that law and order situation might not go out of hand".

As part of the protest, hundreds of students of ADC College blocked the Naini bridge in the afternoon and damaged several vehicles causing a jam for several hours.

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