Thiruvananthapuram: The Kerala University’s Karyavattom campus will be closed down till December 22 in the wake of the violence during the march taken out by the SFI students to the Palayam campus on Friday. However, the authorities said that the campus was being closed to facilitate the upgradation of the hostel mess. Earlier, the students had protested against the poor quality of the food served in the mess.
The students have opposed the decision taken by V-C P.K. Radhakrishnan to close the campus as some examinations are scheduled during this time.
The SFI march to the Palayam campus was against the alleged irregularities in the appointments in the education department of the university and demanding the removal of the vice-chancellor. The march turned violent when the students clashed with the police as they tried to pull down the barricades put up by the police at the university entrance. The police resorted to lathicharge and bursting of water cannons to check the violence.
However, the crisis in the university had arisen due to the intervention of the vice-chancellor to rectify the anomalies in the appointment of teaching staff in the university departments, it is learnt. He intervened following allegations that reservation was being sabotaged in teachers’ appointments. The students’ protest with the blessings of both the UDF and LDF syndicate members was part of a ploy to sabotage the move to ensure the UGC norms that wanted all expert members and no syndicate members in the selection committee.
Ms Divya C. Senan’s appointment in the education department had triggered the row. She was the second person from the state after former vice-chancellor A. Sukumaran Nair who had got a Fulbright scholarship in education. Moreover, the posting which was done about 10 months ago had not created a controversy then.
