Student group urges for peaceful resolution of problems

GANGTOK, 25 July: A section of students from Sikkim Government College, Tadong, has expressed that the ongoing issues at the college should be handled and solved peacefully and not through vandalism and violence. They also requested their college mates to attend classes peacefully from 01 August onwards. Another group of students, it may be recalled, had announced that they would suspend their protest till 29 July, the scheduled deadline for the one-man committee to make its recommendations on the incidents of 14 and 15 July at the college and the police action, and that if the verdict was not acceptable to them, would resume their protest.
Speaking at a press conference today, the new group said that they would not join any other section in any movement or protest but would go against them to maintain peace in the college.
“We are in favor of preserving peace and smooth running of the college. The main issue of the fee hike has now already been solved,” they stated. While the fee hike was rolled back on the first day of the protest itself, more recently, the Chief Minister announced that no fees at all will be charged from students and that even those who had already paid, would be refunded by the Department.
Gobin Prasad Sharma, a 5th semester student at SGC-Tadong, said that students had to suffer due to a few people with vested interests who do not want the problem to be solved. Classes have been disrupted for around 10-15 days now and even admissions for the new semester have been stopped, he added.
“We want to solve the issue in a civilized manner and not through vandalism or violence,” he said.
Since there is no student representative or leader, everyone has been coming out as a leader and claiming to represent students, Mr. Sharma added. “We were also beaten by the police and we want justice too but we also want peace to prevail in the college for the smooth conduct of classes in the college,” he expressed.
Girmey Rinchen Sherpa echoed these sentiments and said that the first priority for the students is studies. Students get 5% marks for attendance and the lecturer also has to complete the syllabus, which he added, has been hampered due to the present situation. “This issue was started by the students and we want the students to end the issue as well”, he added.
Stating that the state government has already constituted a one-man committee to enquire into the incident, he requested the students to submit any evidence related to the incidents to the committee. He expressed his hope that the committee will punish the guilty.
On news reports of the alleged involvement of people from outside the state, Amir Rai [5th semester] said, “This is an issue related to our college and we want to solve this within the college and the state”.