Minister of higher education S.B. Dissanayake speaking to Daily Mirror online stated that certain lecturers were behind yesterdays protest and had instigated the students to behave in the way they did. He further stated that the students involved in acts of intimidation must be expelled.The Minister said that during yesterdays protest four persons including two lecturers and two members of the non academic staff were assaulted by the students and are currently receiving treatment at the Kandy Hospital. "The background of this university is a very brutal one with many students involved in ragging. This university has been responsible for the deaths of students. Therefore they need to be curtailed. These students don’t even have a proper slogan, they can protest against the establishing of private universities, that I understand, but this is just one slogan they are hiding behind. The other requests that they have put forward which include an establishing of a management faculty are unrealistic, both the students and the academics know this,” he said.
The Minister went on state that a certain section of the lecturers were directly responsible for the incidents that took place yesterday. “There are lecturers that I know of who are personally responsible for the situation that arose. They had continued to assist the raggers over the years and it is the few of them who are to be held responsible together with the unions,” he said. The outspoken minister went on to state that he agrees with the decision of the Vice Chancellor and the council to suspend all Student Unions. “I think they took the right decision, if the students continue with this sort of thing it is their parents who will take to the streets,” he said. (Hafeel Farisz)
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