Pics: Spoorthi Ullal
Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (MD)

Mangaluru, Aug 25: The Dakshina Kannada unit of Campus Front of India (CFI) on Tuesday August 25 held a huge protest in front of of Mangaluru City Corporation where the minority welfare office is situated, demanding solutions to various problems regarding scholarships for students from minority communities. More than 200 students participated in the protest.

Students who gathered in front of the commercial building of the MCC sat down on the spot and began demanding their various needs. While the protest was going on, some of the CFI members entered the building and barged into the minority welfare office expressing their anger. They then put all the staff out and locked the main door.

ACP Tilak Chandra, Urwa inspector Ravish Naik and other police officers tried to calm down the protesters. ACP Tilak Chandra told the protesters to open the office door and protest peacefully, and pointed out that that the CFI had asked permission from the police department only to hold the protest and not for blockade.

In response, a CFI member said, "More than 100 applications cannot be uploaded into the National Scholarship portal due to server problem. We have studied with the help of scholarships only. Politicians are playing with the future of the students. We request the authority concerned to provide the students what they deserve, we are not begging. The railway department server does not stop or collapse even when it is very busy. But the National Scholarship portal takes more than an hour to upload the documents."

"Director of minority welfare department Akram Pasha is busy eating biriyani. He is useless. 70% of the students are from villages and they do not know how to operate the computer. Earlier pre-metric student scholarships from 1 to 10 standards were provided through schools. But from this year 9th and 10th standard students are supposed to apply online. The last date for the submission of forms is August 31, 2015. Only a few days are left. Last year 1 crore applications were submitted, but this year the number is only 4.5 lacs. We want the deadline to be extended," he added.

In reply, ACP Tilak Chandra assured that MLA J R Lobo, who has been appointed chairman of the state legislative backward class and minorities committee, will meet the protesters and asked them to vacate the premises. The protesters agreed and opened the door of the minority welfare office.

MLA J R Lobo who came to know about the protest, met the protesters and accepted a memorandum submitted by the CFI members who requested him to help them.

Addressing the protesters, J R Lobo said, "I will refer these demands to the government and request it to fulfill them. First of all, I would like to say that I know that the server is down from a few days. A few days ago I had been to Bengaluru and I met Akram Pasha and informed him about the server problem. He said that the server which is maintained by the central government has some issue and has assured that it would be repaired very soon. The deadline for the submission of scholarship applications will be extended, so students do not have to worry about that. The other demands which you have put forth will be discussed in the coming meeting in Bengaluru."

Prior to the protest, a rally was organised from PVS junction to Lalbagh.