Students protest outside vice chancellor's office in Sikkim over illegal recruitment

Gangtok (Sikkim), Mar.24 (ANI): Sikkim University students staged a protest outside the vice-chancellor's office on Saturday for denying recruitment to those who had donated land for the institution.

Several youth blocked National Highway 31 for more than three hours over the issue.

They blamed him for acting in a biased manner and inducting several non-Sikkimese in different positions. They shouted slogans and demanded that all the scheduled interviews should be cancelled and eligible locals should be recruited.

The traffic on the highway was disrupted for several hours.

According to media reports, Vice Chancellor Mahendra Lama has been accused of favouritism towards non-Sikkimese candidates throughout the recruitment process, ever since he took charge of the position in 2007.

"We are agitating against the vice chancellor because he is not allowing educated youth to be recruited in the University, we are fighting on behalf of the locals and shall continue to protest as long as the locals are not given the first priority. We strongly condemn the action of the vice chancellor and feel that he should go back to his previous place. If our demands are not met, thousands of youth from Sikkim will take to the streets," said Chetan, a protester.

The protestors hailed from Yangyang, where about 40 families had sold off their land for the proposed campus of the university.

In fact, the state government is yet to hand over the land to the university to establish the campus, though the institution had paid the required money to acquire the plot.

None of the university officials, including the vice chancellor himself or the registrar were available for their comment regarding the protest by the locals. (ANI)