Uttar Pradesh: The police detained 12 Allahabad University students on Saturday after they stormed into a building and held two professors, hostage, as part of their agitation against fee hikes, reported the police.
A group of agitated students stormed the FRC (Faculty Recruitment Cell) building near the proctor's office and allegedly surrounded Professor Manmohan Krishna and Professor Ashish Saxena, prompting the university administration to call the police, as per reports.
“About 12 students were taken into custody for the gherao of two professors of the university during their agitation," Ram Mohan Roy, Station House Officer (SHO), Colonelganj Police Station, said. University's Public Relations Officer Jaya Kapoor informed that the agitators were demanding that the fee increase be withdrawn.
The protesters also called the admission committee and threatened that the admission committee will be gheraoed as well if the admission process goes on without reversing the fee hike. The two professors were rescued from the protesting students at 4 p.m. with the assistance of the police, added PRO Jaya Kapoor.
Ajay Yadav Samrat, a student on hunger strike against the fee hike, claimed that the university admin who had summoned the students for talks forced them to sit in a room and subsequently arrested the protesting pupils.
Akhil Yadav, a former vice-president of the students' union, said that on one hand, the university opens the way for talks, on the other, it begins the admission process without the fee rollback.
Yadav also said that if the fee hike is not reversed, the responsibility for whatever happens on the campus will be on the Vice Chancellor.
For the past 25 days, Allahabad University students have been protesting a fee increase. The university's undergraduate level education fees, which were previously Rs 975 per student annually, have recently been increased by more than 300 percent to Rs 4,151 per year.
