Exams held at NIT, many outstation students skip

Srinagar: As peace returned to NIT here, examinations were conducted at the institute on Monday as per the schedule but many outstation students skipped it, deciding to avail of the opportunity of taking the test later.

Meanwhile, police thwarted a bid by three men from Delhi to enter the NIT for hoisting the national flag at the campus which has been witnessing clashes and tension since April one.

The situation on campus was peaceful with no untoward incident taking place, said an official of the engineering institute.

"The examinations started today as per schedule with all local students and some outstation students appearing in today's papers," the official told PTI.

Many outstation students, however, did not appear in the examinations in view of the option provided by the Union HRD ministry to them to write the exams at a later date, he added.

During the day today, three men from Delhi tried to enter the NIT campus for hoisting the national flag.

They were part of a group of about 150 people from Delhi who were intending to go to NIT but were detained in Jammu yesterday.

The three, who had given a slip to police and reached Srinagar, were detained just outside the main gate of the institute as they pulled out the national flag and tried to enter the campus, a police official said.

He said one of the detained person has been identified as Tejinder Singh Bagga.

"We have come from Delhi to hand over the tricolour to the students (for hoisting) but police has snatched the flags from us," Bagga told reporters before he was taken into custody.

He said over 150 activists had started from Delhi to march to the NIT but most of them were detained in Jammu. "Only three of us made it to Srinagar," he added.

Before being whisked away in a police vehicle, Bagga was confronted by some local residents who accused him of trying to vitiate the atmosphere in the NIT campus.

"Why have you come here? The students -- local or outstation -- all our children. They are our responsibility and we know how to take care of them. You need not come from so far away," a middle-aged man told Bagga.

NIT Srinagar has been at the centre of a controversy since April 1 when clashes broke out between outstation and local students following India's defeat to West Indies in the World Cup T20 semi-final.

The situation worsened on April 5 when outstation students tried to take out a march outside the campus but were stopped by the police, leading to incidents of violence including vandalism by students and lathicharge by police.

The students held protests against the police action, prompting the Union HRD ministry to send a team of officials to take defuse the situation.

Among the demands listed by the students before the central team was postponing the examinations so that they could return to their homes.

The HRD ministry granted them permission to skip exams for visiting home saying they would be allowed to write these papers at a later date.

A magisterial inquiry has been ordered into the incidents by the state government.