Despite assurances by state and central governments to address their grievances, about 1,500 outstation students have vacated their hostel rooms in National Institute of Technology (NIT) Srinagar and left for their homes.
“Out of total around 2,000 outstation students at the NIT, 1,500 had submitted their details for going to their homes. Most of them, including girls, have vacated the campus over the past three days and left for their homes in different states of the country,” an official at the prestigious engineering college told Deccan Herald.
He said some parents wanted their wards to be sent home after which they were allowed to move, adding still a few hundred non-local students are staying on the campus. The NIT board held a meeting on Monday after which an email ID was created asking students to send their consent before leaving.
While the exams at the NIT started from Monday amid unprecedented security arrangements, most of the outstation students did not appear. The Ministry of Human Resources Development (MHRD) has provided an option to the students to write the ongoing exams at a later date.
Reports said after 1,500 outstation students left the NIT campus, authorities have decreased the presence of CRPF personnel. Public Relations Officer, CRPF, Ashish Jha said now only women paramilitary personnel are deployed on the campus while rest have been withdrawn.
“They (students) are our own children. India is a diverse nation with different cultures and religion living together in harmony and the situation is same in our colleges. An issue crept earlier in Hyderabad, JNU and now in NIT, so it is not like something completely new is happening,” she said.
NIT-Srinagar, which has around 2,000 non-local students, has been on the boil since March 31, when outstation students clashed with their Kashmiri counterparts, who werecelebrating India’s loss against West Indies.
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