CHENNAI: Students of the Bharathi Women’s College, an educational institution that eponymously evokes memories of the patriot-poet who spoke up for freedom and women’s empowerment, took to the streets on Wednesday demanding remedial action from its ‘callous management’ for poor infrastructure and safety from drunken men from a nearby TASMAC shop. More than 1,000 students of the government-run college held a protest to bring to focus the poor infrastructure problems plaguing the educational institution.The college, students allege, has let down its students with regard to every basic amenity that it is bound to offer — water, sanitation facilities, transportation (train passes), scholarship and safety. And when the students realised that the management was not taking their complaints seriously, 1,000-plus students, pursuing different courses, protested on Prakasam Road, Broadway, where the college is situated, on Wednesday morning, disrupting traffic."There is no running water in the taps in our toilets because of which many girls take leave when they menstruate,” explains A Priya, college president, who participated in the protest. “The canteen cooks use poor-quality rice, but they charge us heftily. The water tank remains unclean though insects and birds have died in it, and the scholarship from the government for many students remains pending,” she explains. The season passes for train travel,which are supposed to be made available at the college, have been pending for a while, she adds, reiterating that several students hail from economically weaker families and bank on these passes to reach college. “We have tried sharing our woes with the management but they have been silent on the issues. Later, they began asking us to not come to them with complaints,” said a protesting student of the college, on condition of anonymity.Add to these woes the problem of having a TASMAC shop near the college bus stand, because of which women face security issues. When contacted, the relevant district manager of TASMAC for the area said the TASMAC shop was placed more than 50 metres beyond the college, as rules stipulated, and could not be relocated for this reason.Talking to City Express, Dr M Revathi, principal-in-charge of the 47-year-old college, said the government had recently completed the construction of two buildings in the premises and water connection for one of them was yet to be given by the Chennai Corporation officials. “We have written to them about the same while we are addressing the other problems currently,” she said, adding that she had taken charge only recently.
Comments
0 comment