SLIET students go on rampage

Angered over enforcing 100 percent attendance and poor food quality in the hostel mess, the enraged students of Sant
Longowal institute of Engineering and
technology (SLIET), a deemed university,
went on rampage.
Students set on fire the entrance test (SET)
office, university auditorium and damaged
director's car and the window panes of the
office. The police resorted to lathicharge,
tear gas shells and fired in the air. Two
students sustained injuries in cane charge
whereas two policemen were injured in
stone pelting by students.
The university authorities only a couple of
days ago had announced not to provide
chance to students getting supplies in
exams and had announced to impose heavy
fines on students absenting themselves in
the classes. The students terming these as
draconian orders wanted the new directions
to be rolled back and decided to protest
against these on Monday.
"We wanted to have an audience with the
director to request for taking back the hard
decisions but ignoring it he spared no time
for talks to listen to our woes", said students
while concealing their names for fear of
reprisal.
The heavy fines have been proposed for
absenteeism, chances to appear in exams
over getting reappears have been taken back
and the meal prices have been substantially
increased and we wanted the decisions to
be rolled back, said the students.
Hundreds of students, including girls, on
Monday stayed away from classes and tried
to have an audience with the director
professor Sunil Pandey but in vain. Angry
over it the students, damaged his car and
window panes before setting on fire the SET
office and auditorium.
The police deployed in large numbers threw
tear gas shells and resorted to lathi charge
and when the students not dispersed, the
police fired few rounds in the air though
police denied it.
University PRO MS Punia said, "The
directions have issued as per ministry of
human resources development(MHRD) and
all India council of technical education
(AICTE) norms and the director had called
students to have talks but the students
wanted him to come down in between the
enraged hundreds of students". He said
authorities are for welfare of students and
will try to sort out the things.

Courtesy: Times of India