Jammu, July 30 (IANS) Several social and political organisations held protest rallies here Saturday to demand early start of the Central University, which was announced in 2007.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Jammu Bar Association, Panun Kashmir and several other groups held sit-ins, took out processions and clashed with the police.
The protesters alleged that both the central and state governments were ‘discriminating against Jammu region’.
While the Jammu Bar Association and Panun Kashmir staged sit-ins, BJP workers took out a protest march in the walled city area. The police, however, dispersed the agitators.
‘We are unable to understand why the government is not appointing the vice chancellor of the Central University-Jammu, so that the varsity could become functional,’ asked Rajinder Jamwal, one of the protesters.
Jammu Bar Association president B.S. Salathia told reporters: ‘The lawyer community of Jammu is fully behind the demand of the early start of the university. The government should appoint the vice chancellor and make the university functional before the situation deteriorates in the region.’
The varsity has become a rallying point for political parties and other groups.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had made an announcement for the setting up of the Central University in Jammu way back in 2007, but nothing has happened on the ground so far.
However, a Central University has been made functional in Srinaga in the Kashmir Valley.
