Excelsior Correspondent
RAJOURI, Aug 19: Over 2000 students of Baba Ghulam Shah Badshah University today declared indefinite strike demanding resignation of Registrar and Vice Chancellor of the University and re-constitution of Special Investigation Team (SIT) of State Police to hold fresh probe into the Scholarships scam worth over 20 lakhs besides bungling worth crores in the University funds.
On the 11th consecutive day of the protests and strike in the University today, the Vice Chancellor Prof Irshad Hamal invited the students for the talks. The students presented their charter of demands which included removal of Registrar from the chair during course of investigation as he is the DDO in the office where Scholarship scam took place, complete audit of University accounts since 2009, make public the internal committee report regarding scam, improve basic infrastructure in the campus, curtailing fee structure and stoppage of regular fee hike, recruit new staff and remove shortage, repairing of hostel infrastructure, state reasons of denial of security deposits of the students for many years, holding elections of students representatives on the pattern of Jammu University etc.
During the meeting the VC refused to removal Registrar Rashid Choudhary. The students asked why the VC was shielding the main culprit in the whole scam. The VC revealed that it was not in his domain to accept and resolve all the demands of the students. There had been some heated exchanges and the meeting ended in a deadlock.
The students then came out of the VC’s chamber and went to the main gate and locked it. They started massive protest demanding immediate resignation of VC and Registrar. They also raised slogans against the Chancellor (CM) alleging that he was also protecting the people involved in the scandal besides his own party minister from Rajouri.
The agitating students did not allow any staff member VC and others to move outside. They remained hostage inside the University till the last reports came in at 9.30 pm.
The protest and shouting of loud slogans continued till late this evening. They also raised slogans against SSP Rajouri, SDPO Thannamandi Mr Talib (SIT head) and District police Rajouri.
Later, SSP Rajouri Dr Haseeb Mughal, DC, Addl DC along with additional force reached there. The SHO was already there along with some force. They started talks with the agitating students and asked them to open the gate and allow staff trapped inside to leave for their respective homes but the gate remained locked and even police was not allowed to move inside when the last reports reached this office.
Meanwhile, Baba Ghulam Shah Badshah University Teachers Association in a letter flashed to Chancellor Mufti Mohd Sayeed and VC appealed them to resolve the issue without any delay as some of the demands of the students are very genuine. President of the Association, Mir Aijaz demanded that issue be resolved and people involved in the scam be brought to justice as the image of this prestigious institution is being degraded. He said that Association will be compelled to join students if the matter was not resolved at the earliest.
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