AISF members stage a protest at Patna University on Thursday. Picture by Ranjeet Kumar Dey

Patna, June 2: As this year’s school passouts collected college admission forms, their seniors created ruckus on the Patna University campus to protest against the varsity’s decision to close the Central Library for a month. Twelve students were injured in the clash with police on the campus.

Sources said around 200 students owing allegiance to the All India Students’ Federation (AISF) today tried to close down the main campus of the university to force the administration to rollback its decision to shut down the Central Library for a month. The university administration had decided on May 30 to close down the library for renovation and modernisation.

Around 11.30am, more than 200 students entered the main campus after forcing open the entrance gate.

Then they started asking the university employees working to vacate their offices. The sources claimed that the protesting students misbehaved with some of the employees.

Around 12.30pm, a team from Pirbhore police station reached the university. But the police presence failed to discourage the students from protesting.

Some of the students met the vice-chancellor, Sudipto Adhikari, with their demands. But Adhikari refused to accept them and said he would put forward their concerns to chief minister Nitish Kumar.

Upset over the response of the vice-chancellor, the students continued with their protest and kept the employees confined to their chambers.

As the situation was getting out of control, the police lathicharged on the protesting students.

The AISF secretary Sushil Kumar told The Telegraph: “The students who were staging protest were beaten up by sub-inspectors Parwez Alam and Ranjeet Kumar.”

The AISF leaders have planned to block Ashok Rajpath tomorrow. They also demanded the removal of the vice-chancellor and other university officials.

The university administration has decided to close down the Central Library, one of the oldest libraries in Bihar, for a month for renovations.

At present, there is no clear records of books and magazines in the library. The benches and chairs are broken and students do not have adequate sitting arrangements. The toilets, too, need to be renovated.

Earlier, the university administration had decided to keep the Central Library open only for 12 hours everyday, from 7am to 7pm. The decision was taken after a clash between two groups of students in the library.