Failed IIIT students demand promotion

KADAPA: Tension prevailed in Indian Institute of Information Technology campus in Rajiv Knowledge valley in Chakarayapeta mandal here on Monday, with students who failed their first year B.Tech examinations protesting on the second day against the college not letting them attend second-year classes. The protests were led by All-India Students Federation (AISF) and Student’s Federation of India (SFI) leaders and demanded the college management to promote the failed first-year students to the second year and allow them to write the backlog papers along with the second year exams.Of the 1,885 first year B.Tech students who had written exams, 734 had failed. After a month of special classes for them, the college conducted supplementary exams but 300 students failed this also. These students were then asked by the management to prepare at their respective homes and clear the first year papers next year. Only then will they be promoted to the second year, they said. The management also insisted that students who wish to stay in the college and prepare must pay `50,000 towards mess and boarding charges.Protesting the management’s decision, the failed first-year students staged a protest on Sunday and Monday. They argued that when all other universities allow failed students to continue their classes in the next year and write the backlog papers along with second year papers, why was IIIT not allowing the same?IIIT (RK Valley) director Krishna Reddy met AISF leader Eswar and SFI leaders Shankar and Srinivas along with other protesting students and told them that he was bound to follow government rules. “What I can do is table the issue in the governing council meeting to be held on August 8. If the council permits the detained students to attend second year classes, we will allow them to do so. Otherwise we are helpless,” he said. However, he added the students can stay in the campus until the decision of the governing council is known.