Top

Bus day: 23 Chennai students detained

23 students detained for instigating trouble after the police stopped them from celebrating bus day.

Chennai: Twenty-three students of the Nandanan Government Arts College were on Tuesday detained for allegedly instigating trouble after the police stopped them from celebrating bus day. Throwing stones and bricks from inside their campus, the students allegedly injured a few policemen and damaged vehicles on Anna Salai in the mayhem.

Trouble began after over a 100 students arrived in an MTC bus at the college to celebrate ‘bus day’, in defiance of the high court order. After the police intervened and dispersed them, students gathered in their college campus and reportedly began to attack it with bricks and stones.

The police halted traffic on Anna Salai and later held a meeting with the college authorities to discuss the situation.

Blame game

V.P. Raghu |?DC

Chennai: Senior police officers in the city feel that it is not the job of police alone to rein in violent students on the roads in the name of bus day celebrations banned by the court three years ago. “Our action may not benefit students. Colleges and parents too have responsibilities for youngsters and they can also influence teenaged students positively,” an officer noted.

City police has been issuing advisories and encouraging periodical interaction bet­ween college admi­ni­strations, MTC offici­al and parents. They have also advised colleges to conduct inter-college cultural festivals so that there is a harmonious relationship between various groups of students studying in different colleges.

According to police, arresting students for violence is the last resort. “We don’t want to arrest and remand them because this will harm their future. But if parents and college are not worried and do nothing to rein in violent teenagers, we will be forced to remand the students,” a senior police officer noted.

Students groups thi­nk that some buses running on certain routes belong to th­em. What they do not understand is the fact that like them, thousands of passengers too use the same bus route on a daily basis, noted the officer, adding that colleges should identify trouble makers and counsel them, besides periodically interacting with their parents.

Police have often found that 50 per cent of the youngsters indulging in violence are not college students, but outsiders who take the opportunity for a ‘high spirited’ celebration.

Bus crew continue to remain helpless

Jackson Jose |?DC

Chennai: Drunk, dancing atop public buses, cat-calling wom­en passengers and even hijacking a bus have been the highlights of bus day celebrations in the city during the last three days.

The high court ban has been thrown to the wind and MTC crew describe the situation as helpless. They allege that police almost provide an escort to the erring students.

Officials of MTC said, “The celebration is banned and we are not allowing students to take buses. We have instructed bus crew to stop the bus in case of such an incident and inform the police immediately. We are pressing for cases against the ones making nuisance.”

MTC union president N. Raju says, “The situation is quite helpless. The crew are not in a position to prevent students from boarding the bus. Police are not taking up the matter seriously. If they book nuisance-making students it will instill fear in other students and drive them to stop indulging in such an activity.”

Jayshree Ramesh, a college student, said, “I have come across various instances of the so-called celebration which is more of a nuisance only. The celebrating students harass school and college girls and damage property. There is no way it should be allowed to go on. ”

Bus day happens on road not on campus, argues principal

Chennai: College principals and academicians say they cannot control students, because bus day happens on the road and not on campus. Police must bring such incidents under control, they added.

Asked about the unruly act of students in the pretext of bus day, Prof. K.M. Prabhu, principal of government arts college for Men, Nandanam, denied the role of his students. He faulted the police for such an insinuation.

“All our 3,500 students were in their classroom when the incident happened. You cannot say that there were our students. I would not even call it a bus day as our students will have banners on the bus, decorate the bus with flowers and present dress material to crew members,” he added.

Blaming the police for their inaction, Prof. Prab­hu said that if the police had acted swiftly they co­uld have averted such incidents. “The inc­ide­nt did not take place on our campus. I have given photos of all students to po­lice. Wh­en they identify st­u­dents with the­ir video footage and arrest them we will take disciplinary action.”

( Source : dc )
Next Story