MUMBAI, MARCH 12: With the striking non-teaching college employees lying low, the second day of the HSC exams today passed off peacefully.The stalemate between the government and the Maharashtra College Non-teaching Staff Federation, however, continued with two scheduled meetings between the federation general secretary, R B Singh and Chief Minister Manohar Joshi not materialising. While Singh arrived late for the morning meeting as he was ``caught in a traffic jam,'' the chief minister just could not find time for him in the evening. Singh kept the CM waiting for nearly 30 minutes for the 8.30 am appointment and when he finally arrived by 8.55 am at Mantralaya, Joshi had left for another engagement. ``The morning appointment with the CM was fixed with the help of Raj Thackeray, however I could not make it on time on account of the heavy traffic. The meeting was then postponed to 5 pm in the evening,'' said R B Singh. In the evening, however, it was Joshi's turn to keep Singh waiting.First the cabinetmeeting kept the CM busy and later a press conference. Later, speaking in Pune the chief minister said there was no question of the government softening its stand. ``I have accepted their (non-teaching staff's) demands of higher wages and time-bound promotions. Now they should come to the negotiating table,'' he said, and added that his government would not tolerate any attempt to inflict sufferings upon the students.Back in the city meanwhile, the action today shifted from colleges, where the striking employees held noisy demonstrations yesterday, to Mantralaya.Over 70 activists of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) stormed the building this afternoon raising anti government and anti-staff federation slogans. The students sneaked into the high security building in groups of two and then burst into slogans taking the security staff by surprise. The Mumbai General Secretary of ABVP, Dhiraj Borikar, told presspersons: ``Though we are associated with the ruling government we were forced to make ourdispleasure public in the interests of the students. We all know the tremendous anxiety the strike has caused to the students.the government should have taken steps to resolve this dispute (with the staff federation) much earlier.'' Barring the surprise ABVP agitation, there were no reports of any untoward incident from anywhere in the city and its suburbs. Today being the English paper a compulsory subject - the number of student who took the exams was larger. ``It was almost like regular exams,'' said a beaming Daksha Shetty who said that most students found today's paper ``very easy.''But the police were not taking any chances. They maintained a strict vigil at all the 51 centres. ``After yesterday's arrests most of the strikers were in jails.there's none left to create trouble,'' said the DCP Kalyan, Shrikant Savarkar.
