Vehicular movement near Vani Vihar Square was disrupted for hours on Friday afternoon as members of the women wings of the BJP and the Congress blocked the road in front of the RD Women’s University strongly protesting the detention of some students of the university during the Chief Minister’s visit there on Thursday.
The activists burnt tyres and shouted anti-Chief Minister slogans.
Demanding clarification from the university Officer on Special Duty (OSD) and the Registrar and an apology from the
Chief Minister, the activists of both opposition parties also gheraoed the OSD and the Registrar.
“The girls were kept under house arrest in their own institute even on the inaugural day of the State’s first women’s university. Both the Chief Minister and the university authorities have to reply,” said BJP MlA Radharani Panda, who joined the agitation.
PCC general secretary Sulochana Das along with her party workers decried the “undemocratic” attitude of the
university authorities and sought an explanation from the OSD and the Registrar.
Notably, nearly 20 students of the university were detained at the campus on the suspicion that they might create trouble during the Chief Minister’s visit to inaugurate the university.
Meanwhile, though the university authorities had asked the victim students to put their grievances before the disciplinary committee, the latter did not come.
“We have asked the students, who claimed to be locked, to record their grievances before the disciplinary committee. But they did not come. Once they come and record their statements, we will be able to take a decision,” said OSD Prof Padmaja Mishra.