COIMBATORE: A student of the Agricultural College at Vazhavachanur in Tiruvannamalai, who had complained against harassment by an assistant professor, and was transferred to the to Anbil Dharmalingam Agricultural College in Tiruchy, staged a dharna at the office of the TNAU Vice Chancellor here on Friday.
A third-year student of BSc Agriculture, the girl has not sought the transfer to Tiruchy and wants to continue studying in Tiruvannamalai. On Friday, she came to the TNAU office in Coimbatore to submit a petition to the V-C. However, she was asked to hand it over to Principal of the Coimbatore Agricultural College. Upon this, she staged the dharna at the office, demanding that she be given time to meet V-C K Ramasamy.
She was then allowed to meet the V-C directly and hand over her petition. She alleged the assistant professor had been harassing her since last December. He would even visit her hostel at night and try compel her to yield to his desires, she said in the petition. She had resisted his advances and also approached two women professors for help. To her shock, the two women asked her to ‘cooperate’ with the man. They even warned the girl that she might face problems if she did not. Her complaint to the college principal also proved fruitless, according to the complaint.
In fact, after an ‘unfair’ inquiry, the college administration had asked to her vacate the hostel, she said in the petition. She was also transferred to the Anbil Dharmalingam Agricultural College. Vice-Chancellor Ramasamy, who received the petition, assured her that a committee had been constituted to inquire into her complaint.