Five D Ed students jailed for jumping into Assembly Hall

Five D Ed students jailed for jumping into Assembly Hall
EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE

MARCH 28: Five students of recently derecognised Diploma in Education (D Ed) colleges were imprisoned today after they jumped from the visitors' gallery into the State Assembly Hall while proceedings were on, in protest against the state government's alleged indifference to their problems.

The incident occured at 12.35 pm. Just as Sena-BJP members gathered in the well of the House to shout slogans in protest against the suspension of nine BJP members yesterday, the students jumped onto the treasury benches from the visitors' gallery.

They threw pamphlets inside the House and shouted slogans in protest against the government. Two of them fell on NCP members, which led to a scuffle. Some MLAs, angered by the disturbance, beat them up. Marshals inside the House then took them away and placed them under arrest for disrupting the proceedings of the Assembly.

Two of the agitating students who were injured seriously due to the fall, were sent to St George Hospital for treatment.

In the House, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Rohidas Patil moved a motion sentencing them to imprisonment till the session was on. The motion was passed by a voice vote.

The students -- Angad Bhosale, Shivaji Popat Aher, Neeraj Dharmrajsingh, Rajesh Patil and Dinesh Patil -- were members of the Students Federation of India and Chhatra Shikshak Kruti Samiti.

In a release issued later, the SFI said the students had to take the extreme step as all their earlier pleas had fallen on deaf ear. The future of 645 students from five D Ed colleges is uncertain due to the government's move to derecognise these institutes through a notification, the statement said.

The colleges were run by the Trimurti Pavan Pratisthan, Nevasa, Ahmednagar, the Sambhaji Gramvikas Pratisthan, Shrigonda, Ahmednagar, the R P Mishra Janata Shikshan Prasarak Samiti, Thane, the Siddhivinayak Shikshan Prasarak Mandal, Bhandup and the Dhananjay Samajseva Sansthan, Vaibhav Vadi in Sindhudurg.

The students said they had staged a 21-day-long fast in Pune and later attempted to set themselve afire near Vidhan Bhavan during the winter session of the state legislature at Nagpur to focus attention on their problems. Despite an assurance by Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, no one had paid heed to them.

They said their demand was that the governement should conduct their examinations as all of them have completed one year of diploma. Also the NOC issued to the five institutes running the colleges must be cancelled immediately, they said.