Colleges closed indefinitely in Tamil Nadu to diffuse student uprising

[TamilNet, Saturday, 31 January 2009, 18:03 GMT]
As students of Tamil Nadu declared strike from Monday, demanding a permanent ceasefire in Sri Lanka, the government of Tamil Nadu on Saturday night announced an indefinite closure of all state-aided, state-run and private colleges in the state. "This reminds us of the 1965 anti-Hindi agitations that rocked Tamil Nadu. At that point of time too, colleges were indefinitely closed that lasted well over three months," a senior Tamil activist told TamilNet.

Students of more than five colleges in the state are on indefinite hunger strike at the moment. Further, in various parts of the state, students are indulging in road-blockades and are taking out processions to show their solidarity with the Eezham Tamils.

As means of diffusing the student uprising, students have also been asked to leave their college hostels from Sunday.

The notification to close all colleges was issued by Tamil Nadu Chief Secretary K S Sripathy.

According to sources in Chennai, the State's knee-jerk reaction comes as a result of intelligence inputs gathered during Muthukumar's funeral.