Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Over 300 students of Maharaja's College who were denied hall ticket protest


Mysore: Tension prevailed at Maharaja's College here on Tuesday after police resorted to a mild lathi-charge to disperse over 300 students who had been denied hall ticket to write the I and II year degree examinations owing to attendance shortage. The examinations are scheduled to commence on Wednesday. The students assembled in front of the college and tried to gherao college principal S.N. Gayatri late in the evening. However, the police intervened and tried to disperse the students who ran helter-skelter. However, they assembled again pressing for the fulfilment of their demands, which included being allowed to write the examinations. The immediate cause for the students' protest was the denial of the hall ticket on the grounds that their attendance was below 60 per cent. In all, 267 students with attendance below 60 per cent were denied the hall ticket as per university norms. An additional 575 students with attendance between 60 per cent and 74 per cent were eligible to receive the admission ticket on payment of a fine of Rs. 900. A few students had paid the fine.

The aggrieved students had met Vice-Chancellor of University of Mysore V.G. Talawar on Monday and had sought his intervention but the Vice-Chancellor had refused to accede to their demands.

The students assembled again on Tuesday. The trigger for the agitation was the reported suicide by a student of the college identified as Suresh of Nanjangud. The agitating students linked his suicide to the denial of hall ticket.