Admn failure turns students’ marathon into ‘azadi’ protest

Rifat Mohidin

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, April 21

Protests broke out at the University of Kashmir (KU) on Sunday morning when hundreds of students and their parents raised ‘Azadi’ slogans due to the alleged mismanagement of State Sports Council (SSC) in holding a marathon race for children below the age of 15 years.

The SSC had invited students from both private and government schools to take part in the marathon, organised under the theme “Run against child abuse”, in three categories. As the children reached the venue along with their parents, they found that no arrangements had been made for the event. The race was for students in the age group of 5 to 12 years. The official circular had said that around 10,000 boys and girls were scheduled to take part in the event.

“There was a lot of chaos and the organisers were not to be found anywhere. There was hardly anyone available from the administration. This angered the students as well as their parents, leading to a protest,” a teacher of a private school said. “The angry students and parents raised slogans and also damaged the stage and property inside the KU. There was total chaos.”

Shazia, a mother, said her son fell down during the chaos and there was no medical aid available.

“A boy even went missing for an hour but no help was made available to his parents,” she said. Another parent, Riyaz Ahmad, called the incident unfortunate and said it was not a marathon for children but an “abuse of their rights”.

“From 5:30 am, students and parents in thousands were waiting at the venue as the race was set to take off at 6 am but it turned out to be a law and order problem,” he said. A top official from the University of Kashmir said there was mismanagement on the part of organisers, which infuriated the students, creating chaos.

GN Var, chairman of Private Schools Association (PSAK), hit out at the government officials and said the “administration takes school programmes lightly”. Naseem Choudhary, director of the State Sports Council, said three events were scheduled for the day and two of them were carried out successfully.

“The children’s race was cancelled because some people came and started raising slogans. We had all the arrangements in place,” the official said. An inquiry has been ordered, he said.

Vijay Kumar, advisor to the Governor, said he had asked the SSC for a report on the mismanagement of the event. Srinagar Deputy Commissioner Shahid Chaudhary said the organisers did not have permission from the administration and the matter would be investigated by the police.