Thiruvananthapuram: Education Minister C. Raveendranath will hold discussions with the Student Action Council, representatives of management and other stake holders on Saturday to resolve the Law Academy Law College strike which has crossed 24th day. The meeting will be held at 3 pm on Saturday. The decision comes in the wake of joint action council’s firm demand that it would hold further discussions only with the education minister. The council said there was no question of backing out from the demand of Lekshmi Nair’s resignation from principal’s post.
“Apart from resignation we want her arrest for casteist slur. The investigation into the case is moving at a snail’s pace and we demand that it should be expedited,” said AISF state president V. Vinil. He said there was no question of holding discussions with ADM or any other officials. “We want the education minister to intervene in the matter. When we met him last time he said university subcommittee was going into the matter. Now that the university panel has done its job and university syndicate has also met once, the minister should take the lead in resolving the agitation,” he said.
The AISF leader said that there were many loopholes in the agreement signed between SFI and the management. “It is unfortunate that the SFI failed to uphold the interests of the students.” Meanwhile, the management of Law Academy submitted the minutes of the discussions held with SFI to the ADM. The minutes pertaining to the meeting in which the decision to keep out Lekshmi Nair was taken. It said the decision was taken with the consent of governing council and adhered to the existing rules.
The ADM told DC that he would go through the minutes provided by the management on Saturday. The official said that they were only looking at the law and order issues connected with the agitation and other issues including the agreement did not come within their purview. Meanwhile, top political leaders expressed solidarity with the agitating students. Former chief minister Oommen Chandy said the government’s stand on Law Academy smacked of arrogance.
KPCC president V. M. Sudheeran sought detailed probe into the misuse of land allotted to the management. Earlier Narayanan Nair and Lekshmi Nair had met CPI state secretary Kanam Rajendran and sought his intervention to resolve the agitation. Kanam is understood to have refused to accept any of their demands. On Friday he not only sent senior leader Benoy Viswan to Law Academy agitation site but also demanded arrest of Lekshmi Nair under the Prevention of Atrocities Act.
