The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Student protest turns violent on SKU campus

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Oct 31, 2007
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Student protest turns violent on SKU campus

Staff Reporter

Row over attendance criteria for semester exams

TROUBLEMAKERS: Police taking away students during the protest on SKU campus in Anantapur on Tuesday.

ANANTAPUR: Students protesting the criteria of 75 per cent compulsory attendance to make them eligible to appear for the semester exams at Sri Krishnadevaraya University turned violent on Tuesday. The exams are to begin on November 1.

A section of the students allegedly attacked the car of Registrar of university Y. Krishna Reddy.

Windscreens of the vehicle were damaged when the students pelted stones after a heated argument with the university authorities at a meeting convened on the issue.

Vice-Chancellor A. Rama Rao, Principal of University College T. Pullaiah and Heads of all Departments and other officials participated in an open forum convened to sort out the issue. The university authorities said to the students that the attendance criteria was fixed by the government and it was not relaxed anywhere in the State.

Conditions

The authorities offered to conduct the examinations for the students conforming with the attendance norm first and later for the rest. But, a vociferous section of the students insisted that all of them be allowed to appear for the examination without following the attendance criteria. They pointed out that many teachers were also not attending to their duties regularly.

Police intervene

The police intervened and resorted to mild caning to disperse them when the situation appeared to be going out of control. Later, the students staged a ‘rasta roko’ on the NH-205 intersecting the university campus, demanding scrapping of the eligibility criteria at least for the current academic year.

A meeting of the HoDs in the university recently refused to allow any relaxation in the matter of attendance. University authorities stated that the students had demanded the relaxation last year and got away. Even this time they were unofficially allowed to appear for the examinations with 20 or 30 per cent attendance.

Zero attendance

But some 150 students with zero attendance also demanded that the7y be allowed to sit for the exam.

The students later shifted their protest to the V-C’s bungalow and were staging a sit-in till reports last came in.

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