BJYM march turns violent

Updated on: Friday, June 24, 2011

A protest march taken out by activists of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) to Pushpagiri Medical College in Thiruvalla took a violent turn on Thursday when a section of the protesters entered the administrative block of the college and ransacked the Dean's office.

The march, in protest against alleged commercialisation of professional education by the Kerala Christian Professional College Managements' Federation, was blocked by the police about 100 metres away from the college. Another group of BJYM activists who entered the college campus through the gate on the east barged into the office complex, raising slogans against the Inter-Church Council and the college management.

The police said nine BJYM activists, including its district secretary P. Unnikrishnan, were arrested. The arrested persons are Sunilkumar, Dileep, Jithin, Pramodkumar, Renjith, Solomon Thomas Varghese, Binumon and Ragesh. The Thiruvalla police registered a case on the basis of a complaint filed by Santhosh Azhakath, PMC director (HR & Operations), against the attack on the college complex. The BJYM workers also took out a march to the Thiruvalla police station in protest against the arrest. The arrested persons were released on bail, later.

The march was inaugurated by BJYM State president V.V. Rajesh.

'Samrakshana Sena'

An emergency meeting of the Pushpagiri Samrakshana Samiti held on the PMC campus on Thursday strongly condemned the attack.

The meeting chaired by Cherian Ramanalil Corepiscopa has decided to deploy PSS volunteers ‘Pushpagiri Samrakshana Sena', to protect the institute against attacks in the name of agitation.

Mr. Ramanalil said there was every reason to suspect a hidden agenda behind the agitations against Pushpagiri at a time when the government and the college managements were trying to resolve the issues in the self-financing professional education sector.

“There are institutions in the State that charge annual tuition fee of Rs.5.5 lakh and above for MBBS course, besides hefty capitation fee. The BJYM, ABVP and other youth organisations should stage their march to such institutions,” the meeting maintained.

The meeting also resolved to retaliate in the event of an attack on PMC and has decided to deploy Pushpagiri Samrakshana Sena on the college campus from Friday.

Shaji Thelappurathu, Malankara Catholic Association president, Eji Parappatt, Shibu Puthukkeril, PSS leaders, Santhosh Azhakath and Mathew Punakkulam, PMC directors, also spoke.

BJYM march turns violent

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