DAY 3 happenings:

Peaceful protest continued for the third day, with students continually sitting in front of admin block, initially devoid of even basic facilities, in very harsh weather. Later office issued orders to restore facilities of hostels, messes, etc despite sine dine being imposed.

Harassment of girls

                Girls were threatened and were forced to leave the hostel despite of the fact that the use of basic facilities were regranted by the institution.

Police withdrawal

                Most of the police officials were withdrawn back from the iiit campus but still a few remained to ensure the peace and law order.

MEDIA COVERAGE

Media supported the cause by taking continuous interviews, and presenting the correct pictures.

INTERNET

                All internet facilities were suspended throughout the day. Institute e mail ids hve been disabled as well.

BOARD MEETING CANCELLED

A meeting of board of directors scheduled for today, to look into the matter, was called off.

The convocation was postponed indefinitely as well.

COLLEGE TRYING TO CRUSH THE MOVEMENT

Management officials along with large number of policemen came at 3 am in the morning and tried to collect the names of the  students who were peacefully sleeping outside the admin building. They threatened that the collection of names was for the purpose of filing FIR, which if happens would spoil the careers of the students. By the way one of the management personnel was talking, it seemed that he was probably drunk and was not in his correct mind.

A constant watch was maintained by the management officials from within the admin building and they are trying to mark faces. Also phone calls are being made to homes of students asking parents to call back their wards.

We would like to bring to the light the fact that despite all the problems and threatening, the unity among the students continues and everyone played their part at the fullest. Food and water supplies were maintained by the students at the peace protest site. Students braved the harsh weather  to continuously maintain presence at the site.

Read More...

Update on 02/04/2011

SOURCE : ON CAMPUS STUDENTS !!

Update on 02/04/2011 -

Yesterday, the students were blatantly lied to on their faces by the director about the fine they had paid which was wrongly imposed upon us in lieu of going home during Rakhsa Bandhan. The Director denied that he had imposed any such fine, but the students do have the recepit and the official mails and the documents which were sent to them, these prove that this fine amount was given, atleast in the order of lacs to the institute.

Another development was that yesterday night, the riot police were called to intimidate the students  by false claims of application of section 144 IPC.

Yesterday night, the Dean of Student Affairs at our college, Mr. R.C.Tripathi announced in front of all the students and the authorities present that an office order to the effect that Sine Die has been declared in the institution. But this has obviously not been implemented as the college bus service was working in the morning, and college officials were reported coming to the college. It seems as if the college is functioning only without any academic activities of any kind.

The students are also not being allowed in the campus, where around 280 of our fellow students are still there. The girls hostels in the campus have been shut down and the students have nowhere to go.

The 280 students in the main campus have not been given any food supplies and have not consumed anything since a span of atleast 10 hours. Their resources are almost nil and we are not being allowed to give them even food to eat. Are they not humans? Do they not have basic human rights?

Read More...

News Report: Student agitation in progress at IIITA to demand action against negligent administration

At 8:00 am on 29th March, 2011 Akshay Tyagi - a first year undergraduate student of Indian Institute of Information Technology lost his life as the Institute bus ran over him while he was boarding the bus. This happened at the Naini campus of the institute which is about 19km away from the main Allahabad city. Per eyewitnesses the authorities did not rush Akshay to any medical aid and Akshay died on the spot suffering from wounds and injuries. The driver also fled the scene and an FIR could only be lodged late in the evening after much pursuance by the first-year cohort at IIIT Allahabad.

IIIT Allahabad is a premier institute of Information Technology in India and was established by the Ministry of HRD in 1999. Ever since its inception, the institute has maintained a small campus at Naini, Allahabad around an industrial area where no medical facilities are available for students. Despite being in service for around 10 years, the Naini campus has no full-time doctor at service and it takes at least about an hour for students to reach the main city to receive any medical aid.

To make matters worse there was no representation from the institute at the cremation of Akshay's body. Reports from students suggest that the administration tried its level best to suppress the news and pressurized students to not take up the matter with the police or local media. To mark Akshay's tragic death students have been protesting ever since near the administrative block of IIIT Allahabad to demand better amenities and prompt action against negligent officials responsible for the lack of medical facilities at Naini campus. Students have also blamed the Director for ignoring the condition of the Naini campus until matters took turn for a worse on 28th March. Till the compilation of this report, students had already sat for near about 36 continuous hours to demand proper compensation and accountability from the administration.

As per latest reports and videos from the campus the administration has resorted to pressure tactics to coerce the agitating students to discard their peaceful protest. Heavy presence of armed police force has been called while the local media is being deterred from giving any coverage to the incident. Some reports suggest that the administration has informed parents and wards of agitating students warning them of dire consequences unless they end their protest. According to unconfirmed reports the institute has been adjourned sine die until further notice.

It is interesting to note here that this is not the first time students have died from lack of medical aid at IIIT Allahabad. In 2009 another B.Tech student Megha Goel and in 2010 a student from the MBA class at IIIT Allahabad had died primarily because of the lack of proper medical care.

Read More...