Leaders of the Kula Vivaksha Vyatireka Porata Samithi (KVPS), an affiliated union of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), have demanded enactment of the proposed ‘Rohith Vemula Act’ to safeguard the right to education and dignity for the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes and minorities. They said educational institutions should be free of caste discrimination to allow students to focus on their academic pursuits.
In a statement on March 23 (Saturday), the organisation’s State general secretary, A. Malyadri, alleged that B. Navadeep, a first-year Dalit student from Bapatla Engineering College, was beaten up with a stick and abused with his caste name by the drawing teacher Balaji. He said the boy sustained injuries on his hand and had to be shifted to the Bapatla government hospital for treatment.
Mr. Malyadri, along with the organisation leaders L. Jayrao and K. Sarath, visited the hospital on Saturday and interacted with the student’s mother, Sukanya, to get a firsthand account of the incident.
He said, according to Navadeep’s mother, Sukanya, the drawing lecturer, Mr. Balaji, called the boy into his room and beat him up, saying people belonging to lower caste like him had no right to study in that college.
The leaders demanded that an attempt to murder case be booked against the drawing lecturer. They said if teachers like him were allowed to work in the college, no student belonging to the lower castes would be able to study there.
