Students and activists who were protesting outside the Central University of Karnataka (CUK) at Kadaganchi in Aland taluk of Kalaburagi district demanding the resignation of CUK Registrar Basavaraj Donur have been detained by the Narona police on Tuesday evening.
Organised under the banners of the Universities Welfare Committee and Republican Youth Federation, the activists gathered at the CUK main gate at about 10 a.m. and continued to protest till some of the leaders of the agitation were taken into custody by the Narona police in late in the evening.
Despite the repeated requests from the agitating activists and the police, CUK Vice-Chancellor Battu Satyanarayana did not come to the agitation site to listen to the agitators and receive their memorandum in which the alleged irregularities and corruption of Mr. Donur were listed.
Unmindful of the rains, the activists continued the protest raising slogans against Mr. Donur. They also blocked the main gate preventing the university employees to go out after their duties till the police cleared the site. Ashwini Madankar, Sunil Manpade and Anil Tengali were among around 15 activist leaders who were taken to police custody.
“Mr. Donur’s appointment itself was illegal. He was appointed as a teaching faculty of the university though he did not have the required educational qualifications at the time of his appointment. After he was appointed as Registrar of the CUK, he has been involved in corruption. A girl who had not passed her undergraduate degree was admitted for postgraduation in English when Mr. Donur was the head of the English Department. Our main demand is that the authorities should remove him from his post and initiate investigation to take legal action further,” Ashwini Madankar, one of the leaders of the agitation, told The Hindu.
