Khalsa College students attack teacher's car

NEW DELHI: Maintaining disciplineseems to have come at a cost for authorities at Khalsa College. Angry at notbeing allowed to take the university exams, a group of students turned violentand damaged a teacher’s car on Thursday.About 140 Khalsastudents had been detained from appearing for annual exams this year as theywere short of attendance.The incident reportedly took place onThursday afternoon, when a few agitated second year students surrounded commerceteacher S K Sharma at the college gate. Sharma, in-charge of maintainingattendance records, was about to drive out, when students smashed the windows ofhis car. The matter was reported to the police who have initiated an inquiryinto the incident.‘‘The incident is an unfortunate one.However, there are specific rules pertaining to attendance, laid down by theuniversity, which must be complied with,’’ said Khalsa Collegeprincipal D S Claire.According to college authorities, many studentswho have been detained are nowhere near the required attendance mark. The figureof 140 comprises about 100 students from first year, about 30 from second yearand seven to eight from the third year.‘‘Many first yearstudents enrol themselves in correspondence programmes without withdrawing theirnames from the college. Others remain busy preparing for engineering entrancetests and don’t attend classes,’’ said anofficial.A 66% attendance record is required for students to beeligible to appear for year-end examinations. The university also has an optionaccording to which second year students who have 40% attendance are allowed totake the exams by filling in a bond stating that they will complete theshortfall in the subsequent year.‘‘Accepting orrejecting the bond system is up to the individual college’sdiscretion,’’ said another university official.