Student bodies' call for Patna bandh today

patna: different student organisations on tuesday gave a call for "patna bandh" on wednesday in protest against the police firing on patna college students on monday. earlier, they undertook a joint "protest march" here, raising anti-government slogans. when they reached kargil chowk, they were stopped by the police. without breaking the police cordon, the procession turned into a public meeting at the chowk itself.speakers at the meeting demanded immediate arrest of asi mohammad allauddin of the pirbahore police station, who was held responsible for the monday police firing, and institution of "attempt to murder" case against him, and removal of patna university (pu) vice-chancellor k k jha. they also demanded immediate holding of elections of students' unions, reservation of 60 per cent seats in patna university for students passing the examination conducted by the bihar school examination board and increase in the number of seats at the graduation level in pu. a resolution adopted unanimously at the meeting said due to the repressive action of the state government against students, including police lathicharge and firing on them, the very survival of the student community is at stake. all over the state students' democratic rights are usurped. the universities and colleges have become private limited companies, they alleged while maintaining that barring agitation, there is no alternative left for students. the meeting was presided over by the president of the pu unit of the chhatra samata, nitish kumar tantan. an appeal was made to intellectuals, students, teachers, traders, rickshawpullers and tempo drivers to make the proposed patna bandh successful. chhatra samata state president bhumipal, sfi state president satyendra yadav, chhatra lok janashakti state president pankaj kumar and general secretary venkatesh kumar, murari kumar of the aisf, arvind nishad of the chhatra jd(u), kaushalendra sharma of the vidyarthi sena, rajesh ranjan pappu of the chhatra janakranti, abhyuday of the aisa and mangaleshwar sharma of the nsy addressed the meeting.