UP students protest Lyngdoh recommendations; resort to violence

Lucknow, Dec 7 (UNI) In apparently the first ever protest over the Lyngdoh Committee recommendations to improve varsity elections, Lucknow University (LU) students here today staged a violent demonstration.

With LU and its affiliated colleges set for students' union polls on December 16, students marched towards the Raj Bhawan to protest the decision of LU authorities on imposing the recommendations.

Police lathicharged the students after their protest turned violent.

The students indulged in brickbatting and stone pelting on the main Hazratganj market on way to Raj Bhawan to lodge their protest.

Police resorted to lathicharge to prevent them from proceeding to the Raj Bhawan, injuring some of the students in the process.

Students later burnt the effigy of the vice-chancellor, even as the varsity campus was turned into a fortress. Police did not rule out conducting raids in the varsity hostels tonight to flush out ''unauthorised occupants.'' The provision, which is being repulsed by the students, is a ban on candidates against whom FIRs have been lodged or any disciplinary action been taken.

The LU had earlier decided to give relaxation to students.

However, the intervention of Governor T V Rajeswar prompted LU to amend the decision and impose ban on all those students, who had any punitive action taken against them.

There are reports of student unrest in some other local degree colleges over the issue.

Meanwhile, shopkeepers and showroom owners in the posh Hazratganj market kept their shutters down in apprehension of vandalism.

Besides LU, seven other degree colleges in Lucknow are scheduled to go for students union polls and the Lyngdoh Committee recemmendations are likley to be imeplemented before this.

Students in Kalicharan Degree College and Vidyant Hindu Degree College had also indulged in protests, police said.

The agitating students raised slogans against the report and alleged the proposed code of conduct was against the democratic rights of the student community.

UNI NAB VS LL GC1657