STANDING STRONG: Students of the Karnataka Veterinary, Animal Husbandry and Fisheries Sciences University launching an indefinite strike in Bidar on Wednesday.

BIDAR: Students of the Karnataka Veterinary, Animal Husbandry and Fisheries Sciences University launched an indefinite strike here on Wednesday.

The students alleged that hostel authorities had misused refundable deposits amounting to Rs. 10.66 lakh collected from them. They demanded a refund of the deposits, transfer of officials and action against the guilty.

In reply, Vice-Chancellor R.N. Srinivas Gowda said that a high-power committee headed by a senior university auditor and the finance controller had been formed to look into the matter.

Dr. Gowda told The Hindu here that the hostel wardens had not been maintaining accounts well and the Hostel Supervisory Committee had not been working properly either. This had been brought to his notice, following which he had ordered the inquiry. The high-power committee would start functioning from May 14. It would not only scrutinise the records of the past 11 years, but would also receive grievances from the students, he said. He promised that the guilty would be punished and the amount found to have been misused by them would be deducted from their salaries. He appealed to the students to withdraw the strike.

In a memorandum to the Vice-Chancellor, the students said that the reason for the strike was that the university authorities had failed to respond to their appeal submitted on April 30.

They alleged that funds of around Rs. 1.1 crore collected from students had not been audited between 1995 and 2006. They had been raising the issue regularly over the last two years and had appealed for action on the matter to the earlier warden Yashwant Kumar, the present warden M.K. Tandle and the college dean Sandur Mallikarjunappa, but nothing had been done, the memorandum said.

According to the students, the hostel authorities had said the money was used for hostel maintenance, which was a clear violation of the rules.

They appealed for an inquiry into all these issues and punishment of the guilty.

They threatened to take their grievances to the Governor T.N. Chaturvedi, who is also the university's Chancellor, if their demands were not met.

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