Chennai: Traffic on Rajiv Gandhi Salai, popularly known as OMR (Old Mahabalipuram Road), was disrupted on Monday after students of Hindustan University at Padur in neighbouring Kancheepuram district, staged a demonstration protesting against the reintroduction of ‘fine’ on late-comers.
Vehicular movement returned to normalcy after two hours, during which time motorists faced the ordeal of taking alternate routes to go further beyond the institution.
Trouble began when a section of students that came late to the college was asked to pay the fine. The affected students relayed the message to the group of students that spearheaded a two-day (February 23-24) stir against the university management’s ‘autocratic’ attitude in collecting excess fee among other issues affecting them.
The university had given a written assurance, to look into the charter of demands including the ‘fine’, which led to culmination of student protests. However, the ‘fine’ was reportedly reintroduced since the beginning of this month. On Monday, the entire group of students boycotted their classes and began raising slogans against the university.
Sensing trouble, the univerisity staff moved to safety. A section of students began stoning the buildings and some went on to ransack classrooms, library, laboratory and canteen. As tension escalated, students from the campus gathered on OMR shrinking the carriageway to the vehicles heading towards Tiruporur and Mamallapuram to reach ECR.
Cops and revenue officials rushed to the campus around noon. The presence of police discouraged students from damaging university varsity property.
Police, when contacted, maintained they have not received any formal complaint from the management regarding the attack.
The rest of the day was declared holiday and students had already started leaving on their own. Sources indicated the loss of property was being assessed by the management, which might place it for discussion among them before pursuing legal recourse for the incident, or to deal it within the campus through disciplinary proceedings.
