College students storm CUHP campus

Tribune News Service

Dharamsala, August 31

A group of students of Government College, Shahpur, stormed the temporary campus of Central University Himachal Pradesh (CUHP) here today. They raised slogans and warned the authorities to vacate the campus in six months.

It created panic among students on the campus, disrupting the studies for some time. CUHP VC Kuldeep Agnihotri, who was in his Dharamsala office, rushed to the campus to defuse the situation.

The CUHP has been temporarily housed in Government College, Shahpur building, since 2010. However, it is for the first time that college students have protested in this manner.

The CUHP authorities suspected a conspiracy behind it. They alleged that the protest might be linked to the arrival of a team of the Union HRD Ministry that will visit Dharamsala tomorrow to inspect the site proposed by the state government for the campus in Jadrangal. Since most of the protesters were belonging to the ABVP, the conspiracy theory gained credence.

A section of the BJP leadership, led by BJP MP from Hamirpur Anurag Thakur, has been opposing the idea of setting up the CUHP in Jadrangal. They want the CUHP to come up in Dehra of Kangra district.

The CUHP is functioning in the new campus of Government College, Shahpur. The college is functioning from the building which has insufficient space.

Kuldeep Agnihotri said the ABVP wing of Shahpur Government College has given us an ultimatum that their college building should be vacated within six months. We have informed the police about the development. The university was forced to function in the college building as land for bringing up the permanent campus has not been finalised. “We are trying that the land should be finalised at the earliest so that we can bring up our permanent campus,” he said. The VC said, “We have requested the state government to give us some vacant buildings in Dharamsala so that we can shift some of our departments there.”