HYDERABAD: High drama unfolded at the English and Foreign Languages University (EFLU) campus on Friday as students gheraoed incharge Vice-Chancellor Prof Amritavalli and forced her to not only stand in the hot sun for over three hours but also have mess food.What triggered the confrontation was an emergency meeting convened by the incharge VC with deans and heads of the various departments in the university in the morning. The students, who got wind of it, gathered in good numbers outside the administration building and when the incharge VC tried to leave by the backdoor, they rushed towards her and surrounded her. The students demanded an apology and explanation from Prof Amritavalli for calling up the police during the varsity’s executive council (EC) meeting on Thursday at a hotel in Secunderabad. Alleging that the cops had manhandled some of them, the protestors accused the VC of failing to protect them. The students had gone to the hotel in Secunderabad in a university bus to stage a protest but the police intervened and prevented most of them from getting down. A few, who were allowed to get down, had submitted a memorandum to the EC members on the alleged irregularities in the university.This afternoon, the students, while seeking an explanation for calling the police, also raked up the irregularities issue and questioned the presence of “ineligible” members on the executive council. They also sought to know from the incharge VC why she hadn’t visited their hostel or addressed their complaints regarding the mess food. Citing a newspaper report, they demanded action against those found guilty of indulging in irregularities by the CBI.Prof Amritavalli, however, stood her ground and without losing her cool matched word for word in a prolonged verbal duel with the students. “The CBI enquiry is in progress, I do not go by newspaper reports. If you have any proof, let me know so that I can take any action,” she told them. She refused to apologise and denied that the cops had manhandled the students. “I do not know who called the police. I have no control over things that happen at some city crossroads,” she said and turned the tables on the students, pointing out that it was they who had forcibly taken the university bus and drove to Secunderabad.During an argument on the quality of the food served, the students brought lunch cooked at the mess which the incharge VC refused to touch. The intransigent students, though, insisted and even brought a chair and an umbrella for her to sit and have lunch. Left without an option, she stood and had a few morsels.Finally, the students relented only after she said she would constitute a committee to probe Thursday’s incidents. The students, who rejected the proposal initially, insisted that their representatives as well as rights activists and civil society leaders be made members of the proposed panel. The incharge VC agreed to have students’ representatives on the panel but not the others. She sought a couple of days’ time for the same and also promised to reply to the memorandum submitted by the students to the EC by Monday evening.
Comments
0 comment