Pachaiyappa’s students block road in protest

Chennai: Over 500 students of Pachaiyappa’s college in the city boycotted classes and held a protest on Tuesday extending support to their faculty who have been in protest against the transfer of a professor and seeking action against another faculty. The students also demanded that the trust board provide them all basic amenities in the college. Faculty belonging to six colleges attached to the Pachaiyappa’s trust board have been protesting for over a month against the board’s decision to transfer Prof P. Santhi from C.K.N. College, Cuddalore, to Pachaiyappa’s College for Men in Kancheepuram, charge memo issued against Prof N. Shettu and also demanded that the trust board provide basic amenities in its institutions at the earliest.

Over 500 students from Pachaiyappa’s college in the city blocked the road outside their college campus on the busy Poonamallee high road around 10 am on Tuesday, leading to traffic jam for about 15-20 minutes. Police personnel then held talks with the students to withdraw their protest and disperse peacefully. But the students were in no mood to heed to the request. But, they marched away peacefully after an hour’s protest.

Mr P. Arumugam, a research scholar, said trust board secretary P. Rajagopal held talks with the students and assured that the board members will conduct talks with them after three days, as they were not in the city on Tuesday. “Based on the assurance given by the secretary, the students withdrew their protest on Tuesday,” he said.

“The trust board has been at loggerheads with our faculty right from the day they assumed charge. The trust board has been ignoring the demands of our faculty and has been acting against the interests of both students and teachers, which we want to condemn. This is why we went on to protest today expressing solidarity with our faculty,” said K. Ramesh, one of the protesting students.

Another student questioned as to when their faculty was on strike, who would teach them.“The faculty need to have peace of mind; only then will they be able to teach us from their heart. So, the trust board should immediately accept their demands and bring the stalemate to end,” T. Saravanan, a B.A. (Tamil) student, said. Board secretary Rajagopal was not available for comments. However, another trust board member, who did not want to be named, said the college had provided all facilities.