College humiliates bereaved parents

Fourteen students of Pune's Abeda Inamdar College tragically drowned off Murud in Raigad district of Maharashtra on Monday last. The college authorities, however, took no responsibility and instead humiliated the parents when confronted. A video clip purportedly showing high-handed and insensitive behavior on the part of college authorities towards the grieving parents has now gone viral on social media sites. PA Inamdar, president, Maharashtra Cosmopolitan Education Society, which runs the college, sternly reprimanded parents of the deceased children to `lower their voices,' as the distraught parents were asking him for an explanation. Parents questioned Inamdar on the `negligence' by the 11 college guardians, eight teachers and three staffers, who failed to dissuade students from entering the waters on Monday. The clip, shared widely on WhatsApp, also shows Inamdar allegedly losing his cool and urging the college peons to drive the parents out of the meeting room. Tempers ran high after Wednesday’s condolence meet organised by the college, when victims’ parents accosted Inamdar. Parents have been repeatedly accusing the college authorities of `gross insensitivity' and openly stating that they were `unceremoniously' driven out of Inamdar’s room when they sought an explanation. The college authorities did not even pay for the ambulance. “I had to travel to Murud to fetch my daughter’s body…the college did nothing. We paid for the ambulance in which my daughter’s body was brought to the city,” said Shakila Sayyad, mother of Safin Sayyad.