Krishna terms radio tags unacceptable

Minister asks US to initiate severe action

“It is an inhuman act and unacceptable” he told reporters in Bangalore and added that India has demanded of the United States to initiate severe action against those officials responsible for making the students wear radio collars.

The students are facing the prospect of deportation as US authorities last week shut down the Tri-Valley University in Pleasanton, a suburb in San Francisco Bay Area, on charges of a massive immigration fraud.

Krishna, who was here to address a Congress rally, told reporters, “Indian students are not criminals. The radio collars should immediately be removed”.

He said that legal aid would be provided to students who face the prospect of deportation. “The parents need not worry since the matter has been taken up with appropriate authorities”, he said. The government would also provide suitable assistance to the affected students if they wished to return to India, he said.

Some of the Indian students who had landed in the dubious university were forced to wear radio collars around their ankles to enable the US authorities electronically keep track of their movements.

The university is said to have 1,555 students, and 95 per cent of these students are Indian nationals. TVU in Pleasanton has been charged by federal investigating authorities with being part of an effort to defraud, misuse visa permits and indulge in money laundering and other crimes.