Most LU students vacate hostels; blame media for plight

Lucknow, Dec 17 (UNI) Students residing in the hostels of Lucknow University continued vacating the premises for the second day today after authorities gave them time till this evening to clean up the the buildings following violence last week.

Students leaving in cycle-rickshaws and auto rickshaws with their luggage blamed Vice Chancellor R P Singh and the media for their ''plight.'' They claimed that while V-C took action even against students who did not participate in violence, the media ''freely termed all students as criminals.'' Some students were also seen lambasting student leaders blaming them for creating a crisis which resulted in hostel purge.

Students appearing in competitive examinations have been allowed to stay in the hostels.

As per High Court directions, university authorities have allowed students to leave hostels on their own by today, failing which defaulters will be forcibly evicted on December 18. The court will review the progress on December 19.

After being pulled up by the High Court for not providing assistance to university in maintenance of law and order, senior police officers were seen taking rounds of the campus to take stock of the situation.

Following reports that some student have damaged university property before leaving and few have taken furniture along with them, the university has formed a committee to assess damages and claim it from guilty students.

Meanwhile, five student leaders of LU had filed a petition before the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court yesterday to review its decision for ordering vacating of the hostels by today.

In the petition student leaders Arvind Kumar, Pawan Pandey, T N Pandey, Vinod Tripathi and Brajesh Yadav, who are staying in the hostels, pleaded the court to review their decision to get the hostels vacated. The students have narrated several dificulties for vacating the hostels immeditely through the petition.

According to the petitioner's counsel, the court might hear the case at the earliest.

A large contingent of police have been deployed in the university campus and Rapid Action Force(RAF) personnel have been kept in reserve in execution of the Allahabad High Court order to get university hostels evicted.

Most of the girls had already vacated their hostels after the university was closed sine die on December 8.

The V-C had ordered sine-die closure of the university on December 8 following vandalism by students demanding relaxation of Lyngdoh Committee recommendations, in the students union polls which were due on December 16. After the closure of the university, the union elections too have been put on a hold by university authorities.

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