Protests over classmate's death: NITC students asked to vacate hostels

, Feb 19: The death of a physically challenged student in the prestigious National Institute of Technology in

in Kerala has snowballed into a crisis as the college authorities asked 5,000 students staying in the hostels to vacate their rooms by 10am on Wednesday or face stern action, said a

The students had on Tuesday protested against the institute authorities and demanded a probe into the death of Mannam Venkateshwaralu, a 19-year-old physically challenged Computer Science student from Andhra Pradesh. He died after a wall on the college campus fell on him.

The student died after a wall on the campus collapsed on him.

The decision to shut down the college indefinitely came after the window panes of the office of the director were broken by the protesters. The order from the college authorities warned that 'any student present in the institute hostels after the said time will be considered as a trespasser and suitable action will be taken against him/ her'.

The warning from the authorities triggered panic in the campus and thousands of students, who come from different parts of the country, had to scramble for train and bus tickets at night.

Meanwhile, the college authorities said they have not forced the students to vacate the hostels.

The student council had prepared a five point agenda which included demands like fixing the compensation amount to be offered to the parents of Venkateshwaralu, tendering contract for a fully functional medical facility on the institute premises, setting up an empowered internal committee for survey and regulation of civil structures of NIT-C, a full-scale probe into the tragic incident, and finally to facilitate a forum every month in which students could raise grievances to the institute director and deans.

The council was supposed to meet the director to discuss the matter, but the director called off the meeting and left for Mumbai to attend a prior engagement, said students.

The Human Resources ministry has asked a report from the director on the incident. Minister Shashi Tharoor and MP Raghavan has also intervened in the issue.

Oneindia News