Panjab University registrar issues advisory to protesters

CHANDIGARH: Panjab University registrar on Saturday issued an advisory stating that the employees and students should not cause any nuisance while holding protest in the residential areas of the Sector 14 and Sector 25 university campus. It added that action as per the law of the land would be taken against the students who will be found violating the laws.

The student organisations, including Students for Society (SFS) and All India Students Association (Aisa), have condemned and rejected the advisory. They have said that they will continue to hold the protest to support opening of round-the-clock girls' hostel.

"It is just an advisory. This is for everyone, including teachers and non-teaching staff members, and not students alone. The advisory has been released to make sure that no one disturbs the peace of the campus," said Panjab University registrar, Professor Karamjeet Singh.

"It is shameful that the registrar has appealed to the protesters and not the vice-chancellor and authorities concerned, who should be addressing our demands. We want to bring their attention to the disturbances and unrest they have caused to the students for nearly a month. We have been studying at the protest site where cars honk throughout the day. We are also sleeping in the cold just to have girls' hostels open round-the-clock. Not only this, we have been marching on the roads to get a transparent hostel allotment process in place," said a senior member of SFS.

The advisory shows that the authorities want to destroy the students' right to protest. It is an attack on the voice of the students. Our protest will continue till our demands are met," said president of Aisa, Vijay Kumar.