Students form AGSU

Sandesh Prabhudesai
18 August 2001  

Students from all over Goa have formed All Goa Students Union, reviving the two-decade old militant and uncompromising student movement, with Murari Bandekar as its convenor.

A meeting of general secretaries and general student activists of colleges from all over the state held at T B Cunha hall in Panaji today also elected an ad-hoc committee. This committee will form unit committees in all the colleges.

The meeting unanimously decided that the AGSU will be a totally independent and non-political organisation, which will work sincerely for the betterment of educational sector in the state.

An initiative in this regard was taken by the Mapusa Students Action Committee, headed by Bandekar, which fought a successful agitation against marks scandal in V N S Bandekar College of Mapusa.

Bandekar said they were also inspired and guided by former student activists, who have now formed Goa People's Front, and assured full co-operation in helping the revival of student movement.

According to Bandekar, the name AGSU of a student union of late '70s has been retained as Goa's student movement had taken shape with this name, though it then diversified in different directions with Progressive Students Union, Students Federation of India and All India Students Organisation.

The AGSU - formed on 18 August - decided to work sincerely to clean up the education system by fighting against those elements who corrode the system, by seeking support of students, teaching community, parents, officials in the educational managements, Goa University and Goa Government as well as general public.

Speaking on the occasion, Bandekar appealed to the student community to build consciousness among the students to work for a value-based education system that would help to upgrade human life.

He also announced that the AGSU will take up issues concerning student community by resorting to all possible democratic means as well as conduct workshops on personality development, public speaking, career guidance, creative art and performing art.

The meeting also decided to hold seminars on crucial issues confronting the educational field and organise competitions like street plays, public speaking etc. The issue of reducing examination hours from three to two hours by Goa University was also discussed threadbare.

The other members of the ad-hoc committee are Sylvester D'Mello, Pramod Kerkar, Castilo Noronha, Rohit Naik, Santosh Goti, Nikhil Arolkar, Pamila D'Cruz, Samir Shaikh, Prasad Chimulkar, Vachan Korgaonkar and Jayaprada Prabhu Khanolkar.

The next meeting of the ad-hoc committee will be held on 29 August, where the AGSU will chalk out the full programme of holding meetings in different colleges to form unit committees.

Jovilyn Pereira of Carmel College, Rohit Naik of Homeopathic College, Mecklon Fernandes of Pilar College, Girish Mandrekar of MES College, Samir Shaikh of Khandola Government College, Mirarani Kulkarni of Bandekar College and Siddhesh Walke of Xavier College also spoke at the meeting.

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