Ensuring discipline in campus will remain our priority: Director
The NIT administration and police have identified 50 non local students, who indulged in vandalism in the campus and damaged the furniture of the institute and vehicles after the March 31 protests following India’s loss to West Indies in WorldT20 semi final match.
The students will face arrests and the NIT is also mulling to rusticate them.
Officials said even as NIT had deployed its private security in the campus to contain the protests. “However, the non-local students had resorted to vandalism due to which police and the paramilitary forces had to be called in to defuse the tension”.
One company of paramilitary Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) still remains deployed in the campus while the policemen are deployed outside the campus.
A senior government official said they have identified 50 students from the video footages and after recording the statement of the faculty.
“The students will face arrests,” he said.
The official said of now only half of the non-local students studying in NIT have reported back in the campus.
“Only 600 non-local students have turned to attend the classes so far after institute re-opened on Monday (April 25). We will initiate action against the students once all of them report back,” he said.
The official said they have registered FIRs into the incident and action against the students involved in violence in the campus will be initiated.
The NIT has also constituted an internal committee to probe violence in the campus. The committee has been asked to submit its report at the earliest.
Director NIT, Rajat Gupta, told Kashmir POST that any action against the students will be taken after the final report is submitted by the probe committee.
“Ensuring the discipline in the campus will remain our priority,” he said.
Officials said besides the non local students, some students from Rajouri and Poonch have been found involved in creating disturbance in the campus.
“There was a total bonhomie between the non local and the local students. The local students had helped non local students during floods in 2014. But some non locals have resorted to violence during the recent unrest in the camp,” they said.
They said the action will be taken against them to ensure discipline in the campus.
After staging protests in the campus, the non-local students on April 5 tried to march outside and clashed with the police men prompting them to resort to lathi charge.
After the police lathi charge, non local students boycotted classes and demanded evacuation of all non local students and shifting of campus to any other part of India. However, their demand was turned down by Union Human Resources Development (UHRD) ministry but they were given opportunity to miss the exams held in third week of this month.
