Students demand Siddha Medical Faculty at Jaffna University

[TamilNet, Sunday, 27 July 2003, 14:22 GMT]
The Vice Chancellor of the Jaffna University, Professor C. Mohanadas, has appointed a seven-member committee to submit a report on the demand by the Siddha Medical Students' Union that a faculty should be established at the university to teach Siddha medicine instead of creating an institution outside the university, education sources said.

The members of the committee include academics from the University Arts Faculty and the Siddha Medicine Unit, sources said.

Meanwhile, students of the Siddha Medical Department, which is located at Kaithady in the Thenmaradchchi division in Jaffna district, said Sunday they would continue their boycott campaign until a written assurance by the Vice Chancellor of the Jaffna University is given on their demand.

The students Saturday held a picketing campaign at the university premises when the University Senate meeting was in progress. They then prevented the members of University Senate from leaving the university premises. The students insisted that their demand should be met without delay and they would not allow the Senate members to leave until they promised favourable action, sources said.

The Vice Chancellor held discussions with the protesting medical students and announced a seven-member committee to go into the matter and to report to him on the possibility of creating a faculty for Siddha medicine in the university.

The Siddha medical students launched their boycott campaign nineteen days ago when they came to know that the university administration was planning to form a separate institution outside the university administration instead of creating a faculty for Siddha Medicine in the university itself, sources said.

The Jaffna University Students Union is also supporting the demand for a separate faculty for Siddha Medicine at the University, sources said.