SKU campus college, hostels closed

By Our Staff Reporter

ANANTAPUR, DEC. 15.Several students' unions are up in arms against what they call ``the unilateral decision'' of the authorities of Sri Krishnadevaraya University (SKU) here to close the university college and hostels indefinitely from Friday. The decision was taken after a group of students threw stones on the administration building and vehicles of the university on Thursday over a demand on an entrance examination.Though there was no forcible eviction of students from the hostels, several of them returned to their native places today, including girls (the students are given time to vacate the hostels by 8 pm). Now the focus has shifted to the closure of the university from the demand of the students.

At an emergency meeting with top functionaries of the university, including the heads of department, the Vice- Chancellor, Mrs. Y.Saraswathy Rao, decided on Thursday evening to close down the college and hostels on the university campus indefinitely ``since the working environment on the campus has been highly disturbed and the safety of the disciplined students is at stake.'' The meeting deplored the ``vandalism and violence'' by students.

Scores of students went in procession to the administration building, which is housing the offices of the Vice-Chancellor and the Registrar on Thursday and staged a sit-in demanding permission for the second year students of postgraduate courses to appear in the entrance examination for M.Phil and Ph.D courses, notification for which was issued recently. Otherwise, they asked the officials to conduct the entrance examination after their examinations.

A delegation of students met the Vice-Chancellor but she failed to accept any of their two demands. The Vice-Chancellor came out of the building and sat on the staircase after the students started raising slogans. As the two sides stuck to their guns there could not be any further discussion.

In a fit of anger, the students threw stones to broke the wind screens of the cars of the Vice-Chancellor and the Registrar parked in front of the building. They also threw stones on the window panes of the building, including the Vice-Chancellor's chambers, breaking the glass.

On Friday, nine students' unions formed a united forum and staged a sit-in in front of the residence of the Vice-Chancellor on the campus, demanding withdrawal of the decision to close the college and hostels. A delegation of the students' unions also met the Vice-Chancellor and other officials but to no avail. Heavy police force has been deployed on the campus to prevent any untoward incident.

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Section  : Southern States
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