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| Return of UIET to JU not a victory of BJP | | Student strength | | Early Times Report
JAMMU, Feb 27: The Government of J&K on Monday finally withdrew its controversial order under which The University Institute of Engineering and Technology (UIET) was snatched from the University of Jammu, the region's premier house of higher learning. The Institute was built on the Jammu University's Kathua campus two years ago and it was snatched from it on the plea that it was a government's institution and fell under the jurisdiction of the Higher Education Department which is held by PDP leader Altaf Bukhari as Cabinet Minister and BJP's Priya Sethi as MoS. The Education Minister had declared that the Institute will not be returned to the University.
Returning the Institute to the Jammu University, Education Minister Altaf bukhari said: "There will be no compromise on the career of the students and I will personally oversee the functioning of the UIET. The government will go out of way to provide every concession to the children".
"The UIET will continue to function on the Jammu University campus as a constituent college and the class work should be resumed immediately, purely in the interest of the academic career of the students," it was stated after the meeting, which was, besides Altaf Bukhari, attended MoS for Education Priya Sethi, Jammu University VC RD Sharma, Higher Education Principal Secretary Dr Asgar Samoon, JU Register Menakshi Kelam. A group of students and parents were a witness.
The return of the institute to the Jammu University has been celebrated by the student community with great pomp and show. Why not? They have described the return of the Institute to the University as the "victory of Jammu" and "defeat of anti-Jammu elements". They have pledged that they would not allow the government to "erode the University's autonomy and fight for it".
Ironically, the BJP has termed the return of the Institute to the University as its victory. It is not its victory; it is its defeat. It was the student community and teaching fraternity and the pressure from below which brought the otherwise adamant government to the knees of the student community. It was the student community of the University which unleashed a relentless agitation on and outside the campus, coupled with hunger strike and the gherao of MoS on the campus and gherao of the Cabinet Minister and disruption of the function which he was to attend two days ago, which forced the government to kneel convinced that any failure on its part to respect the sentiments of the student community could culminate into a major confrontation. It was to save the situation that the state government yielded.
The BJP would do well not to claim the credit for the return of the Institute to the University of Jammu to which it actually belonged. Instead, it should rethink why the Institute was snatched from the University. |
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