Outstation students seek shifting of NIT

The protesting outstation students at Srinagar National Institute of Technology (NIT) on Wednesday demanded that they be evacuated and the college should be shifted out of Jammu and Kashmir’s summer capital.

Though media was denied access to the venue of meeting a two-member team of the Union human resources development ministry had with the outstation students at the NIT campus in Srinagar’s Nigeen area, and was not even allowed to enter the campus, a video released by the students shows them agitating their demands before the team.

The HRD team comprising director, NITs, S.K. Sharma and deputy director, finance, at the ministry Fazal Mehmood earlier arrived here to visit the NIT after it witnessed clashes in which many students were injured on Tuesday evening.

The students told the HRD ministry team that they are being issued academic threats. “They openly tell us we will ruin your careers,” said a female student. She and two other female students also alleged that when they raise the issue they are being accused of spreading rumours “which is totally false”.

Demanding evacuation of outstation students, they also said that the NIT should be shifted from Srinagar. The NIT in Srinagar, earlier known as Regional Engineering College (REC), has nearly 2,500 students and 400 academic staff members. A majority of the students, however, comes from outside Jammu and Kashmir.

Referring to police lathi-charge in which several outstation students were injured on Tuesday evening, they asked which law authorises the police to use “brute force” against students and hit them on their heads. “We’re not gangsters that we would be treated like that. We’re students and have come here to study,” pleaded one of them before the team. At the same time, they also said “we want peace here as we are here to study”.