ABVP activists demonstrate at Balasore Collectorate

Balasore (VISAKEO): The district unit of ABVP organised a demonstration on Friday at the Collectorate. The agitators under the leadership of district coordinator Anirudha Panda besides alleging that the education machineries in the State are in disarray, condemned the police action against the agitating students in Bhubaneswar on July 13, further observing thatit was an act of inhumanity. They submitted a charter of seven demands including filling up all vacancies for teaching staff, a Central and Tribal University in the State. They protested the move of transferring the Central Institutes such as IIT, IIM, IISC from the State. Alleging that education is commercialised, they said on numerous instances recognition of plus two colleges had been given to several institutes without verification. They demanded a Government Medical College at Balasore and protested the decision of the State Government to allot 8000 acres of land to Vedanta for setting up of a university. Waiving of tuition fees for the flood affected students, bus pass for students, a help desk , adequate hostel facilities in each college , direct election for plus three and allotment land adjacent to FM college for expansion were their other demands.    
VHP to go on token fast in protest against Sethu project   
Bhubaneswa(Visakeo)-As part of its nationwide token fast, the State unit of Vishwa Hindu Parishad will organise a token fast at Raj Mahal Square on Sunday in protest against the demolition of Rama Sethu (Adam's Bridge) in the Palk Strait under the Sethu Samudram shipping canal project in Tamil Nadu.
About 20 per cent of Rama Sethu had been demolished, despite the Madras High Court's recent observation that the Centre could preserve it as a national heritage monument. "This showed that they have scant regard for the High Court's observation. It has set a wrong precedence and is highly condemnable. We suspect that there is an ulterior motive in implementing the project hastily," VHP said in a statement. Refuting the SSCP chairman's recent claim that US space agency NASA had concluded that Rama Sethu was not man made, VHP said NASA had clarified that their information was based solely on astronaut photography dataset, which did not provide information on the age, subsurface structure or composition of islands in the Palk Straits. Hundreds of sadhus will join the token fast here.