NEW DELHI: Over 55 Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) activists were arrested here on Tuesday on charges of destroying public property.

They broke the Central Industrial Security Force security cordon and entered the Vigyan Bhavan in a bid to disrupt a meeting of the Central Advisory Board of Education.

It all happened around 2-45 p.m. when the activists entered the premises and began shouting slogans against the Union Human Resource Development Minister, Arjun Singh.

They allegedly broke the windowpanes, paintings and flowerpots and damaged sofas.

The activists were rounded up by police and taken to a station. They were later produced in a court which sent them to judicial custody till June 21.

Earlier, Education Ministers from the Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled States decided to boycott the conclave convened to discuss the draft National Curriculum Framework (NCF).

The ABVP activists demanded that the textbooks introduced during the National Democratic Alliance regime be brought back.

Later, briefing media persons, Mr. Arjun Singh described the incident as "very unfortunate." Further, he said, "they should retrospect and wonder what vandalism has to do with education."

Though the meeting was not disrupted, the violence cast its shadow on the proceedings and it was decided that States would be given more time to consider and formulate their response to the NCF. Apparently, this has been done to counter the charge that the Government was trying to push through the NCF without consultation.

The draft, according to Mr. Singh, will be translated into all the languages in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution and sent to the respective States for consultation.

States will be given time till the first week of August to send in their suggestions so that the process of preparing the syllabus can begin.

As of now, the target is to introduce textbooks as per the new NCF by the next academic year.

Earlier in the day, the Education Ministers of Gujarat, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Orissa, Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh walked out of the general body meeting (GBM) of the NCERT called to discuss the NCF.

Rajasthan Education Minister Ghanshyam Tewari told The Hindu that the GBM was "illegal" as it had not been convened with adequate notice; a point refuted by NCERT Director Krishna Kumar who said members had been informed by May 24.

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