People's Democracy

                                                 Students Lay Siege to Collectorates & Raj Bhavan                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         
                                                                                                                                                                    S P Rajendran

THE collectorates of Southern districts turned into a field of action on January 3 when hundreds of Students’ Federation of India (SFI) members, including many girls, laid siege to the offices and refused to budge. The police forcibly dragged the protestors amid a din of commotion and sloganeering and shifted them from the venues.

The protestors gathered in front of the collectorates of Madurai, Virudhunagar, Theni and Dindugul districts and raised slogans demanding action against Madurai Kamaraj University vice-chancellor Kalyani Mathivanan as well as demanding Students' Union elections. They accused the vice-chancellor of taking vindictive action against students and teachers.

At Madurai collectorate, policemen panicked when they saw SFI members heading towards the portico from where a staircase leads to the collector’s chambers on the first floor of the main building. But the protestors squatted under the porch and began raising slogans. Immediately, the police force was strengthened and some of the personnel were armed with batons.

The unrelenting agitators turned down the plea of the police officials to get into a police vehicle voluntarily following which they were dragged to a vehicle stationed near the portico. The activists resisted the move and tried to stay put by holding on to one another. The policemen attacked some of the students when the latter resisted the attempt to push them into the vehicle.

The struggle against the adament and anti-educational activities of the vice-chancellor of Madurai Kamaraj University (MKU), one of the largest institute of educational excellence in the country, led by SFI is continuing for the past two months.

Demanding union elections and removal of VC, the students also laid seige to Raj Bhavan at Chennai on  January 10. State leaders of SFI J Rajmohan, P Uchi Makali, R Stalin and Madurai rural district leaders M Kannan, S Karthick, Malarvizhi and others led the protest.

Meanwhile, a team of academics from different institutions has represented to governor-chancellor K Rosaiah to intervene in the affairs of Madurai Kamaraj University (MKU) so that research work can be done peacefully in a suitable environment.