TENSION IN AMERICAN COLLEGE AS STUDENTS GHERAO OFFICIAL

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Tension brewed at the American College in Madurai on Wednesday, when some students' gheraoed the regional joint director of collegiate education and staff members, who assumed charge in a move to conduct classes in the controversy-prone institution.

In a complaint submitted to the collector, the JD alleged that there was a presence of outside elements in the institution and urged for proper intervention to ensure the proper functioning of the college.

The posts of the college secretary and principal are yet to be filled as a case relating to the administration and the CSI Madurai-Ramnad diocese bishop is still pending in court. Due to this, the JD, K M Ponnathal who visited the college early this month had announced that the aided staff, both teaching and non-teaching, who had been on the rolls as on November 2010 should report for duty on Wednesday as the semester was scheduled to begin. On Wednesday, she also came to the college and went around supervising the classes.
The aided staff, who were working till November 2010 had abstained from reporting for duty for security reasons. Due to this, the 'bishop's group' appointed a fresh batch of management teachers.
When Ponnathal came to the mathematics department she started making some enquiries about the management staff of the self-financing section. Some of the students demanded to know on what authority she was making the enquiries and ghearoed her.

She told them that she had oral instructions from the Madurai district collector to ensure that the college functioned normally with the attendance coming under her personal monitoring.

As the tension continued to brew, a police force was brought into the campus to augment the already existing personnel, who had been deployed on duty there for security reasons.

There have been reports that the bishop and his men have employed anti-social elements in the disguise of students for their personal gain. "Today's incident was one that went in favour of this theory," said Ashok, a student. Meanwhile, Ponnathal met the Madurai district collector U Sagayam and submitted a complaint alleging that there was a presence of outsiders in the college and urged action to ensure proper functioning of the college.

One of the oldest and prestigious institutions in Madurai was started in 1881 by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Mission with an aim to educate the downtrodden people of the society without any differences in caste or creed.

The Bishop of the Madurai-Ramnad Diocese was a member of the governing council without any executive responsibilities, apart from presiding over the council meetings. But, trouble brewed when the present Bishop Christopher Asir, promoted his family's interest by appointing members from his group to the important posts of the college in the year 2008.

The then college administration and the so-called 'bishop's group' started fighting over the institution.