Protest, vandalism during AU's hostel eviction drive

ALLAHABAD: Allahabad University's attempts to get hostel rooms vacated before the summer break witnessed violent protests by students on Saturday and Sunday.
Though most hostel inmates had vacated their rooms on Saturday, others were forced to move out after the administration roped in police help to evict those living illegally on Sunday.
On May 23, AU dean of students welfare (DSW) had issued a notice directing hostel inmates to vacate their rooms and hand over the keys to respective hostel superintendents by May 25.
Following the notice, 643 male students had vacated their rooms by Saturday. The number included 36 inmates of Sir Sundar lal Hostel, five each from Diamond Jubilee and GN Jha hostels, 86 from Sir PC Bannerjee Hostel, 100 from Tarachand Hostel, 30 from S Radhakrishnan Hostel, 26 from KP University College and 100 from Hindu Hostel. Girl students vacated their rooms volunatrily on Saturday. The number of students who moved out included 75 from Sarojini Naidu Hostel, 175 from Priyadarshini Hostel, 22 from Kalpana Chawla Hostel, 23 from Shatabdi Girls Hostel, 40 from Mahadevi Verma Hostel and 20 from Hall of Rsidence.
"On Sunday, we got several hostels completely vacated. Most of girls hostels were vacated and the remaining inmates would move out by May 31," said AU's chief proctor RS Dubey.
The exercise and the use of force by authorities was met with vehement protest by students.
On Saturday night, a large group of students demonstrated at the gates of the Women's College campus. They also organised a late night candlelight vigil to mark their protest.
Later, several protesting students, including former AU Students Union president Uday Prakash Yadav, were detained by the police at the Cantonment police station.
"Some unidentified men hurdled four crude bombs at the residence of the superintendent of SSL Hostel on Sunday. They also damaged the window panes but nobody was injured as the house was locked," said the chief proctor.
"We are trying to identify the troublemakers and are scanning the CCTV footage," he added. Dubey also said that inmates of Tarachand and SSL hostels damaged university property like wooden doors, toilet seats and switch boards before vacating their rooms.
"All the legal inmates would be re-allotted their rooms by the second week of July. Undergraduate students who are into the first year of their courses and postgraduate students would be allotted rooms as per the fresh merit list."