Guntur just can’t ‘caste’ it aside

Guntur just can’t ‘caste’ it aside

GUNTUR: The crackdown on troublesome freaks and casteist forces notwithstanding, there has been an alarming spurt in ragging and caste related clashes in Guntur district of late.

Pitched battles between students of two colleges in Bapatla and an engineering college in Chowdavaram, a slew of police cases, protests and the inevitable political interference have followed one after the other in quick succession.

In Bapatla engineering college, students of a particular section ‘ruled’ that only they could sit in the front rows of the college bus. They flexed their muscles when the others objected.

Six of the injured lodged a complaint with the police which led to the arrest of 16 students, belonging to the upper castes.

The police went on an overdrive and paraded the arrested on the roads. That didn’t help and the situation remains the same in the college.

Some allege that students of a particular upper caste ‘reserved’ the play ground for good. When the other students used the ground, they were attacked and one Gade Vamsi Krishna was severely bashed up on Nov 20.

Acting on his complaint, the cops booked five students but no less a personage than TDP district president Prattipati Pulla Rao entered the scene and got the five culprits released.

Coming to RVR and JC Engineering College on the city outskirts, students of a particular section roughed up Shaik Mujir, son of Guntur MLA Sk Subhani, on November 17.

Police arrested three students, Venkatesh, Chandu and Sriharsha, on the charges of ragging. The incident assumed political colours when the Telugu Yuvata activists staged dharnas and NSUI activists burnt a college bus.

In the case of Bapatla Arts and Science college, a lecturer allegedly divided students as per their castes and religion and allotted them different benches. The students boycotted the classes in protest. The lecturer quietly went on leave.

In RVR & JC college, the students who were victims of alleged ragging were also suspended. The action of the management attracted criticism and Superintendent of Police Mahesh Chandra Ladda promised to take up the matter with the college management.

Speaking to this website’s newspaper, MLC KS Lakshmana Rao said, “college managements should discourage students at the beginning when they try to harass the students of other sections. The menace of ragging cannot be contained by the police alone as the colleges are being set up by particular sections in the coastal and Rayalaseema region.”

SFI former district secretary Nalini Kant felt anti-ragging committees should be formed in the colleges to curb ragging.

An engineering third year student said they used to bear the harassment from students of a particular section, fearing the wrath of the management.