Student delegation resolves confrontation with govt

ANOTHER GROUP DISSATISFIED WITH AGREEMENT, WILL MEET THURSDAY TO DECIDE NEXT MOVE
GANGTOK, 16 July: At the end of the third day of the student protest today, which was joined in by several other groups, the students remained divided on whether to accept the agreement signed with the state government or not.
A group of thirty college students were sent up to negotiate with State government representatives at Mannan Bhawan today. They went up to the meeting from Tadong in the college bus cheered on by fellow students who stayed back in college. Today, the college students stayed in campus and in the morning itself asked “non-students” to leave the campus.
The delegation held a marathon meeting with the government represented by five Ministers, the HRDD Secretary and the college principal. By evening, the negotiations succeeded and the two sides jointly signed an agreement titled “Decision arrived at the meeting held between the HRDD and representatives of the students of all Sikkim Government Colleges, Tadong”.
The agreement was signed on behalf of the State Government by HRDD Minister Ram Bahadur Subba, Ugen T Gyatso [Minister Tourism], Somnath Poudyal [Minister Agriculture], DT Lepcha [Minister PWD], SB Subedi [Minister RMDD], former Speaker KT Gyaltsen, Thomas Chandy [Secretary HRDD] and Dr. MP Kharel [Principal Tadong Degree College]. The student delegation to the meeting also signed the agreement which recorded the “joint decision drawn up to ensure that proper justice is done in the interest of the students and peace is immediately restored”.
As per the agreement, the government has agreed to provide medical reimbursement and bear the medical expenses of the students injured in the incidents on 14 and 15 July and provide legal assistance to the students during the course of enquiry by the one-man committee headed by Secretary Land Revenue and Disaster Management department, CT Wangdi, into the police action on students on 14 and 15 July.
The agreement states that demands placed by the students have been considered and necessary orders issued.
The students, it may be recalled, had already been informed that the fee-hike [against which the protest began] has been rolled back and a one-man committee of enquiry constituted to enquire into the police action of 14 July which triggered the larger protests.
Where one had expected the joint decision to have resolved the issue, that wasn’t to be. A section of the students refused to accept this agreement as did a section of the supporters, arguing that their demands have not been adequately addressed. The disagreement became rather heated in the evening [read accompanying report] and eventually one group decided to hold a meeting on Thursday at the college campus to discuss the matter and decide the future course of action.