Tension after locals, JU students clash

KOLKATA: Tension between Poddar Nagar residents and Jadavpur University boarders boiled over for the second day on Wednesday, with students blocking roads and putting lakhs of commuters to trouble. While residents accused boarders of eve-teasing local girls and behaving in a rowdy manner, students claim they were assaulted without provocation.
Students and locals fought street battles near the JU campus late Tuesday evening, after which boarders gheraoed Jadavpur police station.Four students were injured in the violence, which ended only when a RAF unit was called in.
Tension was simmering since February 11 when an altercation broke out between JU students and Poddar Nagar locals. Students filed an FIR and police promised to look into the matter within 15 days but apparently did nothing.
Residents, on the other hand, are furious with students for throwing beer bottles into the locality and targeting local girls. Repeated complaints have gone unheeded, they say.
The conflict was never resolved. On Tuesday evening, a few boarders had gone to a hotel in Poddar Nagar when violence broke out. The students claim that one of them went to a milk seller to fetch his daily milk and was attacked without warning. "The vendor started abusing us. Some goons, who hang around a pond near the hotel, joined in. They are the ones who instigated locals against us," said Kingshuk Chatterjee, a third-year boarder of the main hostel.
As a huge crowd of locals gathered, the students called up their hostel mates for help. Within minutes, dozens of boarders were squaring up against the locals on the road.
Altercations broke out. A few elders from the area tried to mediate, but tempers kept flaring. "The goons kept provoking locals to teach students a lesson'. Some had come armed with steel rods and bricks," said a student. In minutes, the arguments spiralled into full-blown street battles.
"Some students finishing their dinner at the hotel were badly beaten up," alleged Chatterjee. Four of them were taken to hospital with broken bones and bleeding heads.
Shibu Mitra, a Poddar Nagar businessman said: "We have long been demanding that the students' hostel be converted into a staff hostel. The university has promised to pay for all the damage caused by the students. A meeting will be held on Friday between the authorities, students, police and locals to sort out the issue."
JU pro-VC Siddhartha Dutta said: "We have spoken to the students and requested them not to leave the hostel premises after 10 pm. The terrace from where bricks and bottles have allegedly been thrown will be sealed and the open balconies towards Poddar Nagar will be covered."
"Both sides have lodged complaints. We have started separate cases," said South 24-Parganas SP Ajey Ranade.