By Violet Pereira, Team Mangalorean
 
Mangalore : Students of University College, staged a protest in the college campus for penalizing four students, on July 9.

Nishant B M, Tejesh, Surakshith and Yashodhara are the four students who have been penalized by the College Principal, Laxminarayana Bhat for protesting against the facilities in the college on 28 June 2012.  Although the entire college students had  taken part in the protest, but only 4 students were penalized by the principal.  Each student was forced to credit Rs 3,000 to the Principal's account and Rs 500 as penalty.  The entire college students boycotted the classes and participated in the protest.

Speaking to mangalorean.com Nishant said that, the condition of the classrooms is very pathetic,  the Wenlock Hospital drainage water is overflowing into the college ground, bad smell emanates from it thus making difficult to concentrate on studies. Also the condition of the play ground and basket ball court is very dilapidated.   We have requested the authorities to take up the play ground work and make it useful to play for the students but the management has failed to rectify the situation thereby ignoring the students plea, he blamed. 

He also said that there are no proper equipments in the gym. The basketball court is not at all maintained and plants and bushes have grown in the court making it useless.

Most of the classrooms are leaking in the rainy season and there is electric current flowing through the wet walls. Open and live electrical wiring without proper insulation is seen in some of the places, seems like the concerned authorities are sleeping. The Sanskrit  classroom is filled with water, but when the students requested the management to fix it, they were told , "fix the problems your self!!"   Students blame the principle for not maintaining the class rooms. Ladies resting rooms are not safe, with no locks on any rooms, they said.

The memorandum was submitted to the principal and the students have demanded the renovation of the basketball court and make it useful for the students;  Also to clean the Kabbadi ground and keep the surroundings clean ; To repair the ladies rest room, doors and locks; To stop water leakage in the classrooms and repair of all the electrical wiring.

The Principal must take swift action to rectify the problems faced by the students. Without proper maintained play ground, most of the competitions or sports day celebrations are held in the Nehru Maidan, this should be avoided by giving new face lift to the present play ground in the college.