Sikkim students now term pact with government ‘confusing’

SNS, Gangtok, 17 July 2014: A group of students has termed the agreement between student representatives and the government a “medium to confuse” them.

The government, represented by ministers, and student representatives of some government colleges held a meeting yesterday and reached an agreement to end the violent protests that rocked Tadong area in Gangtok in the past few days.

The students had protested a hike in the semester fees in government colleges, while police intervened and lathi-charged the protesters.

In the meeting, the government agreed to meet the demands of the students, including removal of the Superintendent of Police, East, Manoj Tiwari. Although it was believed that the SP in question had been transferred, no official order has been issued by the government as yet, it is learnt.

“The government pressured us to sign the agreement, the copies of which bear no letter head of the government, thereby, confusing us and sabotaging our protests,” said Tshering Denka Bhutia, who was a participant of the meeting with the government in the conference hall of the Human Resource Development Office.

“We wanted to call off the strike and urged the government to meet our demands, including the resignation of the SP and the officer in-charge of the Sadar Police Station, SR Shenga. However, the ministers said that the state government does not have the authority to interfere in such matters, while we again requested them to at least suspend the police officers pending inquiry,” a student said.

The students have further alleged that one of their representatives, Neelam Gurung, who was reportedly the first among the lot to agree to the government’s terms, is an ex-student and has no right to interfere in college matters now.

There are further allegations that Ms Gurung made the students sign in a blank paper, which was later attached with the copies of the agreement.

Clarifying her stance, Ms Gurung, meanwhile, said her teachers gave her permission to don the college uniform. “Though I am an ex-student, I got into this as I found that the students were being misguided and the situation was getting worse,” she said. “However, I support the demands put forth by the other students and we stick to our claim that until and unless our demands for the suspension of the police officers are met, we will continue our protest,” she added.

“We do not know what we will do next, but whatever happens, the administration will be responsible for it,” said Prakash Parajuly of Sikkim Government College. The students today rejected a one-man enquiry committee formed by the government and demanded a civil servant (any IPS or IAS officer), retired judge and a guardian of any student to be included in the probe panel.