Kozhikode: The Central University of Kerala here is facing protest from the residents of Malathumpara colony near its main campus at Periye for its failure to keep the promises given to them when their land was acquired for setting up the university. The university has opened hostels and constructed academic blocks on the main campus but it has not cared to solve the issues of the residents who were promised facilities, including jobs in the university. They staged a protest for 16 hours from Wednesday night threatening to commit suicide in the university hostel.
Though they withdrew the protest after the district administration and Uduma MLA K. Kunhiraman intervened, the CUK authorities’ refusal to attend the reconciliation talks invited the ire of the district officials and elected representatives. It was in 2012 that nearly 20 families consisting of 100 members in the colony gave away their land for the university. While CUK Vice-Chancellor Dr G. Gopakumar maintained that the university had not given any promises to them, he admitted that the university took time to intimate the demands of the protesters to the Union government.
“We are constructing houses for them with good facilities. They raise one or the other demand all the time which the varsity cannot solve due to our constraints. Let there be a political decision in the case and we will be happy to do whatever the ministry says,” he said. He added that the university had already sent a request to the government to consider the protesters’ demands. Mr Kunhiraman alleged that the CUK was cheating the residents by not calling them for talks and going back on the promises. “The promise was given by the earlier VC and the new VC cannot say he didn’t give any promise,” he said. “If they are not willing to resolve the issue, I know how to deal with it,” he warned.
