Date:20/03/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/03/20/stories/2006032008300400.htm

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

AISF wants deemed varsity status scrapped

Special Correspondent

PROTEST AGAINST `TORTURE' : Members of the All India Students Federation staging a demonstration in Chennai on Sunday. — Photo: R. Ragu

CHENNAI: Activists of the All India Students' Federation (AISF) staged a demonstration, demanding cancellation of deemed university status conferred on several private educational institutions in the State, near the Memorial Hall on Sunday.

Led by State AISF secretary R. Thirumalai, the activists from different colleges in the city and its suburbs raised slogans calling for a judicial probe into the death of an engineering student belonging to a private deemed university "under suspicious circumstances."

They alleged that many deemed universities and self-financing colleges were "torturing" students for protesting against their style of functioning and lack of facilities. Accusing some of these colleges of using "musclemen" to beat up students, they demanded action against the managements.

The student activists urged the Government to take immediate steps to bring the deemed universities were brought under the purview of the Anna University.