Turned out fake: Students vandalise college over roll number slips

Damage college property, set staff motorcycles on fire.

GUJRANWALA:

Nearly 200 students and others vandalised a private college on Wednesday, breaking the doors, windows and furniture over non-issuance of roll number slips for the intermediate examination that began on Wednesday.

Some of the students were issued slips that turned out to be bogus. The protesters burned some motorcycles belonging to the college staff.

Later the Education Department sealed the college and the police arrested its chairman.  A fraud case has been registered against him.

Students of Intermediate in Computer Science (ICS) part-I at the Victoria College of Commerce on Kachha Aimenabad Road had gathered outside the office of the registrar in the morning and demanded roll number slips to sit their statistics examinations at 1:30 pm.

They were told to submit their fees for the second year first. After roll number slips were issued to two students, who paid the fees, turned out to be bogus.

The students then attacked the principal’s office and damaged college property.

Muhammad Adeel and Asif Asghar, the principal and the vice principal, respectively managed to escape, but the students caught hold of the chairman, Muhammad Yousaf. He was beaten up and handed over to Sabzi Mandi police, where a fraud case has been registered against him.

Several students, talking to The Express Tribune, said they had been told that the roll number slips will be mailed to their homes on Tuesday, but nobody received the slips.

Mariam Zafar, one of the students who paid the Rs40,000 fee for the second year, said the invigilators at the exam centre did not let her in telling her the roll number slip (Number 17474) was bogus.

She said, earlier, the students were told that the slips had been stolen from the office. She said, later, the administration had told the students that admissions of boy students had been sent through the Army Public School, Gujranwala, and those of the girl students through Jinnah Science College.

When approached, the administration of both the institutions denied having been contacted for the purpose.

Army Public School administration clarified that the school was affiliated with the federal board and could not correspond with any of the provincial boards.

District and Sessions Judge Muhammad Rasheed Qamar was requested to intervene and has summoned the students and the college principal to the court on Thursday (today).

Some of the students said they planned to sit-in in front of the board office on Thursday (today) to demand roll number slips.

An official of the Gujrawalan board said that the college was not recognised with the Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education. He said the board could not issue new roll number slips until the chief minister directed the chairman to do so.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 31^st, 2012.