Students union blocked in Jaffna University, aid to war victims affected

[TamilNet, Saturday, 25 June 2011, 10:00 GMT]
The Jaffna University administration continuously proscribes the functioning of its students union. The Vice Chancellor Prof. Vasanthi Arasaratnam recently told the elected representatives of the union that they could function only when SL minister Douglas Devananda and SL minister for higher education, S B Dissanayake permit them. She told the newly elected representatives for the current academic year to meet the said ministers personally and have talks with them for the recognition of them as office bearers. The intention behind the stand expressed through the Vice Chancellor is to make the students union a stooge of the said ministers, accuse student circles in the university. Meanwhile, aid given to war-victim Vanni students thorough the union is stopped due to dysfunction of the union.

The students union of the university recently had elections. The democratically elected new office-bearers are still not recognized by the university administration and the union is not allowed to function.

Earlier, when there was no recognition to the representatives they elected and the president of the union was blocked from functioning, the students of the university boycotted the classes. They resumed attending the university after some assurances given to them by the university administration.

But the current stand taken by the university administration shows who is behind the manipulation and what are the intentions, student circles of the university fathomed.

Without the elected representatives getting the consent of the ministers, especially Mr. Douglas Devananda, she couldn’t do anything on the matter, the Vice Chancellor told the student representatives who met her.

Students of the university face many practical difficulties due to the dysfunction of the students union.

This has affected the distribution of food and other assistances given by aid organizations through the students union to more than 500 students who had come from Vanni after directly suffering the miseries of the war.

The distribution of the said assistances is now stopped.

The Vanni students depend on the students union for two meals a day. The parents and relatives of most of the students were dead, missing in the war or are still languishing in the camps.

The students union is unable to talk to anyone officially as there is no recognition to its elected representatives.