CHENNAI: It’s been five days since the Presidency College was shut following a sit-in stir on the campus.
Higher Education Department sources indicated that it was highly unlikely that the college may be reopened before the Christmas holidays.
The college has a strength of about 4,500 students, and thousands of them are bearing the brunt of the act of a few unruly ones causing trouble on and outside the campus.
Last week, students staged a stir seeking to re-admit the 15 students who were arrested in connection with the campus violence and later dismissed from the college. The students who protested insisted that the college management intervene in the legal proceedings against the arrested students.
After the protests, the students held talks with the college principal professor Paramananda Perumal. The college management, however, clarified that it would not re-admit the students as they were facing criminal charges.
Later, the college was shut so as to avoid any untoward incident on the campus. The period of closure was not mentioned. College sources observed that the decision to dismiss the students was taken at the insistence of the government and the police. “At least 11 of the students who were dismissed were involved in the attack on two students on campus. They should be relieved that they have got bail in the case,” a professor of the college pointed out. “Four others who had been dismissed have been booked for issuing life threats to the former principal and attempt to assault the principal,” the professor added.
“The college management is firm that it would not re-admit the students. These students were not regular to college and most of them did not have proper attendance and had to repeat their semesters to appear for the examinations,” said another professor.