Cops shift varsity students on stir ahead of Vice-Prez visit

Puducherry, Feb 25 (PTI): As part of security measures in view of Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu's visit to

Pondicherry University, police on Tuesday removed 80 protesting students from the administrative block of the

varsity and shifted them to the silver jubilee block on the campus.

The students have been protesting for the past 20 days, demanding total scrapping of the increase in fees.

Security has been tightened in the university with the police and Rapid Action Force personnel being deployed

ahead of Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu's address the 28th convocation in the university on Wednesday, an official source

said. The university said the campus has been brought under

tight security and as a preventive measure, the agitating students occupying the corridors of the administrative block

have been removed but kept within the campus to maintain law and order, a press release from the varsity said.

The university tried its best to avoid unforeseen developments by engaging four rounds of talks by itshigh-

level committee with the students but there was no breakthrough in the negotiations because of the 'adamant

attitude' of the protesting students, the release said. The varsity management claimed that efforts to end the

impasse would continue, it said. The university had its earlier convocation in December

last when President Ram Nath Kovind was the chief guest and the need to have a convocation within two months of the

earlier ceremony was to clear the backlog of degrees, the Vice-Chancellor of the University Gurmeet Singh had told PTI

on Monday.