On May 19, the state-run Mehr news agency reported that the mullahs’ President’s special representatives at the working group for relocation of civic employees from Tehran ordered three ministries to reduce the number of university students in Tehran and relocate them to other cities.
According to this report, the directive orders the Science, Research and Technology Ministry, the Ministry of Health and Medical Education, and the Ministry of Education to reduce the number of students in government-run and private universities in the capital while facilitating the relocation and acceptance of students in other large cities and provinces.
Under the measure, in order to relocate portions of universities from Tehran, the Ministry of Science, Research and Technology is also tasked with coming up with a plan for the universities to shrink the student count and report it to the working group.
Ahmadinejad’s first deputy announced two significant directives by the working group to transfer civic employees from Tehran. By doing this, the regime seeks to evade the effects of people’s uprisings and to curb protests particularly by university students.
The report has surfaced at a time when the anniversary of the start of the nationwide uprisings in June as well as the anniversary of a significant anti-regime protest act in 1981 are fast approaching.
