E-Paper
New way to terrorise students, staff
There's hardly any day when the Allahabad Agriculture Institute-Deemed University (AAI-DU) administration is not in the news for misuse of authority.
There's hardly any day when the Allahabad Agriculture Institute-Deemed University (AAI-DU) administration is not in the news for misuse of authority.
Finding themselves in the dock over several issues including running of unapproved courses under distance education, technical education and the incidents of violence and arson on the campus in August 2005 in which students were injured following firing by inner ring guards and the subsequent lodging of FIRs against themselves, the AAI-DU administration now has allegedly found a new way to terrorise students and some staff members who had been refusing to dance to their tunes.
In their latest move they were reportedly going around the campus and asking students to lodge written complaints against some staff members holding them responsible for the August 30-31 incidents on the campus.
All this despite the fact that FIRs against them (AAI-DU administration) had been lodged earlier with the Naini police which has even submitted the charge-sheet in the court. One charge-sheet is against the VC Dr RB Lal and registrar AKA Lawrence in which they have been charged for committing fraud upon students under section 419, 420 and some other sections including 467 of the IPC and the other charge-sheet is against the PRO Vinod B Lal, Dr Robin L Prasad, (Chief Proctor), Ms Ranu Prasad, ( chief warden, women's hostel), Derrick Dennis, (chief warden, men's hostel) and the personal security guards who opened fire upon the agitating students during midnight of August 30-31, 2005.
The firing had led to pellet injuries to five students.
They have been charged under section 147, 148, 149, 307( attempted murder) and 323 of the IPC and section 7 of Criminal Law Amendment Act.
However, students this time refused to be cowed down by the strong arm tactics adopted by the AAI-DU administration by refusing to sign any frivolous complaint at this stage.
This is not all.
In their quest to come out clean from the mess they have created for themselves, the AAI-DU authorities even went to the extent of holding the DM Amrit Abhijat, then SSP, SK Gupta and the DIG range, Akhilesh Mehrotra responsible for the chaos on the campus.
The AAI-DU administration led by VC Dr RB Lal, and Chancellor Dr Mani Jacob even wrote to the Minority Commission, New Delhi, to immediately get all FIRs against them withdrawn as they were lodged under pressure of Bajrang Dal and that some officials of the district administration have colluded with the communal elements and allowed them to file criminal cases against them.
The state government should be directed to pay Rs 1.50 crore as compensation due to the fact that adequate protection was not provided by the district administration.
It may be mentioned that there were numerous incidents in the past where those who refused to go by the dictates of the AAI-DU management were victimised, harassed, suspended and even terminated.
An administrative officer(AAI-DU) Rakesh Bajpai even tried to commit suicide by climbing up a water tank on the premises accusing Dr RB Lal of corruption and his harassment. He sent a seven-page letter on 5.1.98 to UP Governor and HRD Minister highlighting the murky happenings on the campus.
A student cut his tongue because of harassment.
He was being asked to pay Rs 800 for a local magazine. The purchasing of this magazine had been made mandatory by the AAI-DU administration. The students then launched agitation which was crushed in 2002-2003 by AAI-DU administration.
The then DM Devesh Chaturvedi following such incidents conducted an inquiry and in his letter to Principal Secretary Higher Education went to the extent of suggesting a high level probe into financial irregularities and involvement of AAI-DU officials including public relations officer Vinod Behari Lal and guards in committing atrocities upon students.
