SB warns of tough action against university troublemakers

June 18, 2014, 9:16 pm, the island

By Dasun Edirisinghe

Undergraduates including bhikkus violating university rules and regulations causing unrest would be severely dealt with according to the law, Higher Education Minister S. B. Dissanayake said yesterday.

Addressing a media conference at the University Grants Commission (UGC), the minister said that a section of undergraduates sponsored by some bankrupt political parties like the JVP had created scenes at Sri Jayewardenerpura, Ruhuna, Colombo universities and the Wickcramarachchi Ayurvedic Institute in Gampaha.

"We will punish them according to the law," Dissanayake said, adding that tabs were kept on all trouble makers including the bikkhu undergraduates of Sri Jayewardenepura university currently occupying a part of Sumangala Building of the campus though alternative accommodation had been offered.

The minister said that since1984, the universities in the South and North had been controlled by the JVP and the LTTE respectively, but under the present government all universities were controlled by Senates.

UGC Chairperson Prof. Kshanika Hirimburegama said that only a small group of undergraduates financed by outside groups created violence in universities.

She said that they disrupted the education of other students, too.

Vice Chancellor of Sri Jayewardenepura University Dr. N. L. A. Karunaratne said that senior bhikku undergraduates had instigated freshers to cause trouble and that was why the new entrants had been given a separate hostel.

"That decision was taken by senior bhikku lecturers in our university not by me," he said, noting that only a handful of undergraduates were opposed to that decision and all first year bhikku undergraduates had been taken to the Sumangala building forcibly.

Dr. Karunaratne said that senior bhikku undergraduates had threatened him and his family at his office on Tuesday.