Allahabad University to convene a high powered meeting on march 4 to discuss crisis

Updated on: Monday, March 04, 2013

Following last Saturday's incident wherein a group of agitating students locked the chief proctor along with his staff members and AU's security officer in the office for over 10 hours, the university authorities would be holding a high powered meeting on Monday, March 4. Apart from the issue of how to diffuse the present crisis, postponement of the annual exam, scheduled to begin on March 5, could also be mulled over in the proposed meeting.

It is worth mentioning here that a large group of students of AU had derailed the entire working of AU on Friday and Saturday. On Saturday, the chief proctor and registrar, along with their staff members and AU's security officer were all locked in their offices concerned for hours. Although the registrar and his staff managed to come out of the campus by around 4pm, the chief proctor and security officer were freed after the intervention of district administration at around 10.30pm.

The students were agitated after two expelled students of AU, Ajeet Yadav and Avinash Dubey had tried to immolate themselves in front of the office of the vice-chancellor A K Singh, on Friday. These two, along with Dinesh Singh Yadav, president of the AU student union, were rusticated by the university authorities recently after they were found involved in thrashing the personal assistant of the V-C in his office. Because of the rustication, they are not allowed to appear in the term-end exam. Among these three, Ajeet is a student of BA-II while the rest two are of MA. Likewise, another student Imran Ansari was also expelled by the university authorities after he had assaulted the V-C physically and had been sitting on fast unto death at the portico of V-C's office demanding that he be allowed to appear for final exams.

On Saturday, the students had locked all the doors of the proctor's office and chief proctor Mata Ambar Tiwari, his staff members and AU's security officer Ajay Singh were locked inside the office for around 12 hours. They were freed at around 10.30pm after the intervention of district administration and police who entered the campus and broke the locks. The police also admitted Ansari to a nursing home late Saturday night. The chief proctor met him on Sunday and offered a glass of juice for him to break his fast.

In this backdrop, university authorities would be holding an all important high powered meeting, chaired by acting V-C N R Farooqui since V-C A K Singh is not here and would be returning around March 6. Apart from finding a way to diffuse the present crises, the meeting would also discuss the issue of taking the steps required to ensure peaceful conduct of examination scheduled to commence from Tuesday, March 5.

Sources inform TOI, that a section of teachers and officials and those associated closely with the conduct of exams are of the view that exams should be postponed for around a week or at least till the V-C is back on the campus.

Controller of exams H S Upadhayay, said, "Although, I cannot comment on postponement of the exams but of course the ground situation is not conducive to hold the exams peacefully as students are apprehensive about coming to the campus. But, we are prepared fully to conduct the exams if the condition is suitable," he added.

Chief proctor Mata Amber Tiwari said, "We are holding a meeting on Monday to discuss various issues as it is unfortunate how police and district administration remained mute spectators instead of protecting us, especially when the exams are just round the corner".

Dean student welfare R K Singh said, "The situation is scary as teachers and students are scared of entering the campus in the given situation where a handful of students hold the institution to ransom and police and district administration watch the crisis from a distance".

University authorities have informed that students of BA part I, II and III can download their admit cards from AU's website and appear for the exams.

Allahabad University to convene a high powered meeting on march 4 to discuss crisis

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