A complaint has been filed with a two-member inquiry committee after Manipur University’s Pro Vice Chancellor Y Yugindro Singh and security forces allegedly broke the lock of the vice chancellor’s office, reported Imphal Free Press on Sunday.
The offices of the vice chancellor and the registrar were locked on August 23 as per the directions of the chairperson of the inquiry committee constituted by Ministry of Human Resource Development. Vice Chancellor AP Pandey was suspended last week pending completion of an inquiry against him.
On September 20, Singh accompanied by Pandey and security forces entered the campus to take charge as the interim vice chancellor. Hours later, police fired tear gas shells and carried out mock bomb attacks during midnight raids at the university. Around 90 students and five faculty members were arrested.
W Vishwanath, a senior professor of Manipur University who was named to perform the duties of vice chancellor, said it is unfortunate that the state government has kept the teachers and students of the university behind bars. He said firing of tear gas shells was disappointing and appealed to authorities to revoke the suspension order of the teachers who were arrested. He said the teachers should be released unconditionally in order to restore normalcy on campus.
The committee of political parties, a platform for Opposition parties in the state, said the use of excessive force during the raid at the university is “repressive measure” by the state government, reported Imphal Free Press. “Shutting down of mobile internet service after the ‘illegal’ raid is baseless,” said committee convenor RK Anand. “The government is using its power beyond the authorised limit as such serious tactics should be enforced only during emergency.”
The committee also demanded a lasting solution to the problems at the university.
Meanwhile, several students of the varsity have declared that they will not appear for the semester examinations while the Joint Students’ Co-ordinating Committee has called for a complete shutdown till normalcy is restored.
The Manipur University Students’ Union has said that “the politically appointed pro-VC” Y Yugindro Singh took charge as the new vice chancellor without any prior knowledge of the university. The union also said charges framed by Yugindro against the students and teachers were contradictory.
Unrest at the university
The university was closed between May 31 and August 23, while the students’ union agitated with a single-point demand for Pandey’s removal for alleged administrative ineptitude. The protestors called off their 85-day-long agitation after the authorities promised an independent inquiry committee would look into their allegations.
The protestors have accused Pandey of incompetence and conducting several “non-academic activities” out of his office after taking charge in October 2016. He has also failed to fill key positions such as that of the university’s chancellor and registrar.
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