A protest against the Panjab University (PU) steep fee hike aroused on Tuesday as agitating students confronted with the police, who had to resort to lathi-charge resulting in injuries on both sides.
After registering a case of rioting and breakage to public property against the protesting students, police have detained 52 students out of the 66 identified by the university authorities, police said.
The agitating students have the hots for holding talks with Vice Chancellor Arun Kumar Grover on the fee hike issue as they were observing “PU Bandh” against the recent hike.
When the students were not called for deliberation, they endeavored to coercively enter the VC office in the varsity campus by jumping the barricades set up by police.
Police fell back on with water cannons to disperse the displeased students. The situation turned ugly when students allegedly started pelting stones and flower pots at cops, forcing the police to lathi-charge and lob tear gas shells, leading to injuries to several students including girls.
Several student bodies including Students for Society (SFS), National Students Union of India (NSUI), Punjab University Students Union (PUSU) had given a joint call for ‘Panjab University Bandh’ in protest against the steep fee hike.
“We resorted to use force after students turned violent,” Union territory (UT) Chandigarh SP Eish Singhal said, adding that some police vehicles were also busted. “On our side 22 cops sustained injuries,” SP said. “We have arrested 52 students so far for rioting and damaging public property,” he said. After police used force, some protesting students took hermitage in a Gurdwara situated on the campus.
Earlier, the protesting students boycotted classes. Some photo journalists and reporters who were covering the protest have also sustained injuries allegedly caused by police cane charge. Chandigarh Press Club strongly condemned the averred lathi- charge by the police on photographers and journalists.
In a release issued, the Press Club’s president Jaswant Rana and secretary general Barinder Singh Rawat along with the governing council members clamor for inquiry into the incident and registration of FIR against those police personal who were involved in lathicharge. A delegation of the Chandigarh Press Club will meet the UT Administrator, UT Adviser and UT IGP in this regard to take strict action against those involved in this incident, the release said.
The students have been protesting against the “significant” hike in tuition fee announced by the PU senate last month for the 2017-18 academic year. In some courses, the fee hike was steep. In the B Pharma course, the fee was raised from Rs 5,080 to Rs 50,000 and in MA (journalism) course, the fee was hiked from Rs 5,290 to Rs 30,000. For PU’s dental course, the fees was increased from Rs 86,400 to Rs 1.50 lakh. With the students demanding rollback of the fee hike, the PU had justified the average 12.5% hike while considering the financial condition of the university as the it has anticipated a deficit of Rs 244 crore for the financial year 2017-18.
