Outsiders are instigating strikes in BU

BANGALORE: “I am waiting for things to cool down. Then, I will talk to the irked students,” Bangalore University (BU) Vice-Chancellor Dr N Prabhu Dev told Express.  On Wednesday, he visited Jnana Bharathi campus for inspection of pending work related to various departments, but was greeted by agitated students shouting slogans against him. “I went to Jnana Bharathi today and visited the engineering departments for an inter-departmental talk. Then, I headed towards the Physical Education department to inspect the improvement work of the swimming pool and gymnasium,” said VC Prabhu Dev. More than a hundred members belonging to the Postgraduate and Research Student’s Forum and Non-Teaching Staff Association held a rally against the ‘unhealthy trends in BU and confinement of VC and Registrar’. The students later met Dr B C Mylarappa to submit a memorandum with a list of their grievances. The list includes complains about damaged roads, water supply and sanitation, poorly maintained toilets, lack of canteens, poor hostel facilities, maintenance of computer labs and libraries, lack of transparency in PhD entrance exam, irregular payment of scholarships to below poverty line (BPL) students among others. “On account of all these problems faced by the students and staff of the University, we urge the authorities that if the above demands are not met at the earliest, we would be forced to call a University bandh,” said the memorandum, a copy of which is circulated to media persons. Upon receiving the memorandum from the protestors, Registrar Dr Mylarappa assured solutions to their problems and further requested them to call off the strike. The VC said that there was no Postgraduate and Research Student’s Forum in BU, and claimed that outside elements were instigating these strikes. “There is no association like that. The strikes witnessed of late in BU are instigated by outsiders,” he said.