PUNE: While the protests and subsequent incidents at the refectory of Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU) turned ugly, the university administration will be taking a sensitive approach in handling the issue further.
This was discussed during the Senate meeting held at the varsity on Saturday.
After the recent protests at the refectory took a violent turn, police complaints were lodged against several student protesters.
However, the SPPU administration has now taken a sympathetic approach to the whole incident. SPPU Vice-Chancellor Nitin Karmalkar, while speaking at the Senate meeting, said that appropriate action will be taken once the Committee appointed to look into the matter comes out with its overall report.
However, he also ensured that the University will not take any action that will cause educational loss to any student involved.
“I have been a student as well. As a student representative at SPPU, I have seen many protests regarding the issues at the refectory. Hence, I am well-informed of these problems. The university administration is looking into the matter very sensibly and the issue will soon be resolved,” Karmalkar said.
In what seemed to be recurring incidents, worms were found in the food served to the students at the refectory on several occasions. The students were protesting outside the place when the university declared that only the members of the refectory would be allowed to have food there. While the protesters caused damage to the furniture and windows, some of the staff members of the university too were injured. Due to this, a complaint was lodged at Chatuhshringi police station.
After Senate member Dadabhau Shinalkar made a proposal for the same, there was a discussion on the issue where other members like Shashikant Tikote, Shyamkant Deshmukh, Bageshri Manthalkar, etc, gave their inputs.
Ensuring that the matter will be well probed, Registrar Prafulla Pawar asked the students not to be scared.
