BP Mandal Engineering College in Bihar released an order prohibiting Saraswati Puja or Vasant Panchami celebrations which are to be held on January 26. The order created a ruckus in Bihar. Order from the principal prohibited the Sarwasti puja on the Madhepura campus of BP Mandal Engineering College. The decision has outraged the students.
On the other side, Samastipur District Administration threatened to file an FIR against those who will play DJ music during the festival.
On January 21, 2023, the students of the state government-run BP Mandal Engineering College in Madhepura, Bihar, staged a protest against the college administration after it imposed a ban on the celebration of Saraswati Puja on the campus.
As per the media reports, the students were planning to celebrate puja on January 26, but the college principal Arvind Kumar Amar released a written order to stop it immediately.
An order issued by the college threatened the students of taking legal action if the directives prohibiting the celebration of the Hindu festival were disobeyed.
Students also alleged that the principal and a teaching member named SD Singh locked certain students in a room and assaulted them. They were threatened with expulsion from the college if they did not adhere to the university’s directive.
The conflict on January 20 was so heated that the students held the hostage of police by locking gates from the inside.
According to the students, they submitted a written request to the principal, Arvind Kumar Amar, for granting them permission to celebrate Saraswati Puja by installing an idol on campus, but the latter refused to grant permission to instal the idol, which led to the dispute.
The administration further instructed that to ensure that no Saraswati Puja pandals are constructed in the area without due permission from the authorities. Police have been asked to remove ‘inflammatory’ posters and banners from the puja pandals and mark all sensitive areas and idol immersion places and monitor them.
