Rehabilitate students, approve Right to Education: AISF
New Delhi, Nov 14 ( UNI ) Hundreds of students from across the country today took to streets demanding the UPA government initiate immediate rehabilitation measures for riot-hit students in Orissa, approve Right to Education Bill in the forthcoming session of Parliament and rein in commercialisation of education in self- financing professional colleges.
The agitators gathered at the historic Ram Lila Maidan, from where they traversed through the busy roads to reach Parliament but they were prevented by the police from proceeding further.
Slogan shouting protestors who carried placards staged protest rally near Parliament police station which was attended by CPI General Secretary A B Bardhan along with other senior party leaders D Raja, Atul Kumar Anjan, Mrs Amarjeet Kaur and Ani Raja.
The agitators under the banner of All India Students Federation (AISF), who represented as many as 23 states and carried red flags, also demanded from the Manmohan Singh government to constitute Education Commission to review the current education system, stop military aid to Sri Lanka, increase the allocation in higher education and research and stop foreign direct investment and the entry of foreign universities.
Addressing the rally, Mr Raja criticised the Central government for the move to set up the foreign educational shops under the banner of WTO.
Mr Raja, CPI national secretary and Rajya Sabha MP, said that the government, which was hardly spending two per cent of the GDP on education, must increase it to six per cent as promised by the UPA.
Mrs kaur and Mr Raja also impressed upon the government to stop military aid to Sri Lanka on the plea that the ethnic conflict remained unresolved for more than 40 years. This conflict has caused enormous human hardship, refugee exodus and also affected the young generation to great extent.
Hundreds of schools in Tamil populated areas had been destroyed in the deadly bombings, they added.
The leaders urged the Congress-led coalition to persuade the Sri Lankan government to agree for a political settlement through direct negotiations.
AISF leaders Ginu Zacharia Oommen and Vijendra Kesari demanded that the VHP-RSS-Bajrang Dal be banned, attacks on the North Indians in Maharashtra be stopped and urgently scrap POSCO project.
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