Sikkim tech classes start, axe on 26

Gangtok, Oct. 6: Classes resumed at the Sikkim Manipal Institute of Technology yesterday after almost a month since clashes broke out between boarders and day scholars on the campus.

Sikkim Manipal University vice-chancellor Brigadier (retd) Surjit Singh Pabla said according to the interim report of a seven-member committee constituted to probe the clash, 26 SMIT students, identified for their involvement in the violence, would be suspended.

“Of the 26 students, suspension orders for 17 have been issued and their guardians have been intimated about the decision,” the vice-chancellor said. Suspension orders for the remaining students were being processed, he added.

The suspensions range from two to four weeks. Pabla said several other students were yet to depose before the committee and final action would be taken after that. “Action against some more students in the future cannot be ruled out.”

The vice-chancellor said the SMU, to which SMIT is affiliated, while meting out punishment to the perpetrators had kept in mind the careers of the students.

The tech college authorities had suspended classes on September 8 after a volleyball match snowballed into a major clash and a full scale rioting. Police had to burst tear-gas shells and conduct lathicharge on the Majitar campus to dispel the warring students. The SMIT campus is near Rangpo, the town on the border with Bengal, 45km from here.

Pabla said a number of steps had been taken by the SMU in consultation with the Sikkim government to ensure that such incidents were not repeated. “A chief security officer and a chief hostel warden for the campus have been appointed. Brigadier (retd) S. R. Mazagavankar is the chief security officer for SMIT and he had joined duty in the third week of September.”

Fifteen private security guards have also been deployed on the campus. Pabla said teacher committees have been constituted to keep a watch on the activities of the students in the hostels and on the campus.

Most of the 2,500 boarders had started returning to their hostels from the end of September, SMIT sources said. There are about 4,000 students at SMIT.

The Telegraph