By
Dasun Edirisinghe

Police yesterday used batons, tear gas and water cannon to disperse a group of protesting Higher National Diploma in Accountancy (HNDA) students when they attempted to force their way into the premises of the University Grants Commission (UGC) and the University Education Ministry at Ward Place, Colombo 07.

Police spokesman ASP Ruwan Gunasekera said that 39 protesters had been arrested.

He said that a police constable who sustained injuries had been admitted to the National Hospital.

Traffic along Ward Place, between Borella and Town Hall, was held up for about two hours and congestion quickly spread to surrounding areas.

Students’ protest march which commenced from the Fort Railway Station at 2.00 p.m. was to end opposite the UGC with a discussion with Minister of University Education Lakshman Kiriella.

Convener of the Inter-University Students Federation, which organised the protest, Lahiru Weerasekera told The Island that the police had attacked them with batons, tear gas and water cannon opposite the Dental Institute.

“Six of our members including female students were injured but they could not be hospitalised immediately as police were waiting to catch them at the National Hospital,” he said.

Weerasekera said they had launched the protest against the reduction of the duration of their four-year Higher National Diploma in Accountancy programme to three years, but the Yahapalana government’s response had been to unleash savage force.

He charged that there was no difference between the Mahinda Rajapaksa government and the present administration as both regimes attacked innocent student protests and promoted privatisation of free education.

The student activist said that they had asked for a discussion with Minister Kiriella, who agreed to meet them. “But, later ministry officials said that the Minister was not available as he had left for a meeting with ‘Maga Neguma’ officials. When we tried to sit opposite the UGC, police attacked us.”

ASP Gunasekera said the undergraduates had been arrested as they attacked police.

Courtesy:The Island