SHILLONG, May 31: Health Minister, James PK Sangma on Tuesday assured the students of Indian Institute of Public Health (IIPH) Shillong that necessary actions would be taken in connection with the May 27 alleged highhandedness at the institute.
A group of IIPH students met Sangma and demanded an assurance from him that such incident will not recur.
They also submitted a letter to him narrating the incident and said it had left them shocked and traumatised.
A student, who did not wish to be named, said, “He told us the letter will also be forwarded to the Principal Secretary (Health), Sampath Kumar and assured us that necessary steps and actions will be taken.”
In the letter, the students wrote: “We never expected such behaviour from the high-ranking officials. The DHS (MI) had not only interrupted in an ongoing class but also brought to a halt our remaining classes.”
They said three persons, including two women, had interrupted the class and that one of the women raised her voice at them while enquiring about the usage of rooms.
“We are studying public health but we were treated in a manner as if we do not matter and what we study does not carry any weightage,” they wrote in the letter.
“The way he (Aman War) approached and interacted with us seemed like a pure display of power and (he) did not have any consideration towards us. He chased us out of the classroom with an aggressive tone and made us feel small, weak and extremely humiliated,” they further wrote.
The students said they were deeply pained by the incident. They described the behaviour of the officials as utterly unprofessional and said the matter should have been handled at the management-level, not directly with them.
“We have colleagues from other states and we felt this display was not an acceptable portrayal of our Khasi culture. Kindly look into this matter at the earliest so that such incidents do not occur in the future and hamper our education. Also make us feel safe and secure at our place of education,” the letter further read.