Members of the Students’ Federation of India (SFI) were detained following a confrontation with the police during a protest in front of the office of the Chief Education Officer here on Thursday.
The members of the CPI(M)-affiliated group raised slogans against the draft National Education Policy (NEP) and the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) in front of the office of the Chief Education Officer. Following an argument with the police, the protesters attempted to bring the barricades down, which prompted the police to physically restrain the protesters. Following the confrontation, most of the protesters were forced to board the police bus. The rest of the protesters were women and were taken in a separate bus by women police.
G. Niruban Sakkaravarthy, State vice-president, SFI, who led the protests, told The Hindu that the four demands were scrapping the draft NEP, banning NEET, protecting government schools from shutting down and implementing a fee structure for private schools. He accused the police of not allowing the protesters to meet R. Murugan, the Chief Education Officer, to state their demands. “Had they (police) allowed us inside, there would not have been any issues,” Mr. Sakkaravarthy said during a telephonic interview.
Nearly six protesters were injured during the confrontation, Mr. Sakkaravarthy said, alleging that the police did not come forward to offer first aid to them.
The police said that 20 protesters – 13 men and seven women – participated in the protest and were detained at a marriage hall in R.S Puram. They were released in the evening.