state times news
New Delhi: A group of NIT students on Wednesday staged a protest at Jantar Mantar here demanding shifting of their campus from Srinagar after clashes in the institute between local and outstation students.
The students, who held a protest in Jammu yesterday, gathered at Jantar Mantar this morning to raise their demands. “We want the HRD Ministry to pay attention to our demand of shifting the campus out of Srinagar and accountability to be fixed for the police action on students,” a protesting student said.
Another student said, “We had raised our demands with the HRD officials who had visited the campus but they have been turned down. We also want withdrawal of all cases against non Kashmiri students of NIT and full security to them”. Tension started brewing inside the NIT campus, located at the banks of famous Dal Lake, on 31st March after India lost to West Indies in semi-final in the T-20 cricket tournament prompting some local students to rejoice and burst crackers. This led to protest by outstation students resulting in clashes. The situation inside the campus has been volatile since then and the
authorities had posted personnel from Seema Suraksha Bal (SSB).
The local police was manning the main gate of the institute.
Expressing a sense of insecurity in the campus, a group of outstation students have left the institute after the HRD Ministry gave them an option of appearing for the exams later.
HRD Ministry had sent a three-member team to campus last week to take stock of situation and hold talks with the agitating students to defuse the tension.
The team will be in Srinagar till the ongoing exams are concluded. PTI
Students meet Rajnath, Dr Jitendra
New Delhi: A group of NIT, Srinagar students on Wednesday met Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and discussed about the ongoing stir on the campus following clashes between local and outstation students.
During the 20-minute meeting, the students placed various demands, including shifting of the National Institute of Technology (NIT) campus from Srinagar.
The Home Minister is understood to have assured the aggrieved students of security on the campus and suggested them to concentrate on their studies, official sources said.
Students from NIT Srinagar held a meeting with Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh at his residence today. The meeting lasted for over three hours.
In a frank heart-to-heart exchange of views, students expressed their grievances to which Dr Jitendra Singh responded positively. He also made it clear that he was firmly the against use of force against students which should be the last resort in the rarest of rare circumstances. Students expressed satisfaction over their interaction with the Union Minister who hails from J&K.
While explaining to the students that shifting of NIT out of
Srinagar was not a healthy option, Dr Jitendra Singh convinced the
students that instead, all of us should join together to ensure that NIT Srinagar, which is one of the oldest engineering institutions in the
country, should be restored to its original pristine glory.
He said, the prime importance is to ensure that the academic career of students should not be affected adversely by the recent turn of events and at the same time, they should feel physically and mentally secure so that they can concentrate on their studies.
