Students damage DU office

A bunch of DU students, allegedly lead by university’s students’ union office bearers, vandalized the premises of DSW— the department that takes care of the admission process, at the north campus on Thursday.

A bunch of Delhi University (DU) students, allegedly lead by university’s students’ union office bearers, vandalized the premises of Dean Students Welfare (DSW)— the department that takes care of the admission process, at the north campus on Thursday. The students criticized the university for not providing the applicants with basic amenities like drinking water.

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According to the eyewitnesses, about 15 students, including Delhi University Students’ Union (DUSU) president Nupur Sharma, secretary Amit Choudhary and joint secretary Ashish Gahlot, barged into DSW office around 12 noon, wanting to meet Dr S.K. Vij, Dean Students Welfare. They complained that the university hadn’t made arrangements to provide drinking water to students seeking admission in the university.

Since Vij was not present in his office, Joint DSW, Dr Suman Kr. Verma, met the students in his room.

“The students were angry and within minutes started turning the furniture inside the room upside down and smashing windowpanes,” said Amit Yadav, a student who had come to collect the admission form and was present at the time of the incident.

“They had a silly complaint, which wasn’t even correct,” said a private security guard on duty at the DSW.

“They got out of control and started damaging office furniture. Though Delhi police personnel were present, no one came to stop them. We had to manage the situation,” said the security guard.

When this reporter visited the spot, shattered glass pieces were lying all around the DSW office. “We hadn’t made unreasonable demands. All we had asked for was drinking water for the applicants who come to campus in this hot weather. We went to request peacefully, but when the Joint Dean misbehaved with us, students got infuriated and behaved the way they did,” said Nupur Sharma, DUSU president.

“Though I wasn’t present at the time, this kind of behaviour won’t be taken lightly. We are planning strict action the students concerned,” said Dr Vij. “It’s because we have managed to keep DUSU out of admission process that they are frustrated,” said a DSW official on the condition of anonymity, as he was not authorised to speak to the media.