Kerala   

Campus Front storms DDE offices

No compromises: The police removing Campus Front activists who ransacked the DDE office in Malappuram on Wednesday.

MALAPPURAM: Activists of the Campus Front, the student wing of the National Development Front, ransacked the Deputy Director of Education (DDE)’s office here on Wednesday as part of their agitation against the government’s neglect of the Malabar region in providing educational facilities.

Campus Front activists barged into the DDE office and threw out files, chairs and benches. The protesters locked the office door from outside in a “symbolic sealing.”

No one was injured in the attack. The DDE was away during the attack. The police arrested 16 Campus Front activists, who were later remanded in judicial custody.

Leaders of the Campus Front later claimed that their protest was a “people’s confiscation” or “janakeeya japthi.” They warned that they would intensify the agitation if the government did not solve Malabar’s imbalance in opportunities for higher education.

“More than 75,000 students who qualified for Plus Two will be denied higher education owing to lack of seats in Malabar,” said A.A. Rahim, State general secretary of Campus Front. He said the neglect of the authorities towards Malabar would be evident from the fact that hundreds of seats would go begging in the southern districts of Kerala.

He said the government’s decision to increase Plus Two seats by 20 per cent across the State would not solve the problem faced by Malabar.

The Campus Front demanded that additional batches be allotted for higher secondary and degree courses to solve the problem faced by Malabar.

Activists of the Campus Front, students’ wing of the National Development Front, vandalised the office of the Deputy Director of Education here on Wednesday.

The police said that a group of 40 Campus Front activists stormed into the office in the afternoon and hurled files. They reached the office premises and staged a demonstration protesting against the government’s alleged neglect of the Malabar region in granting educational facilities. The protestors, the police said, ransacked the office causing damage to furniture. Three staff members suffered minor injuries in the incident, the police said.

The police took 18 protestors in to custody from the spot.

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