Other States - Orissa   

Engg. students take to the streets

BHUBANESWAR: Hundreds of engineering students from different colleges of Orissa took to the streets here on Friday demanding withdrawal of the ‘year back system’ from the examination rules.

As students advanced towards the Assembly premises, the city police resorted to mild lathi-charge leading to a chaotic situation. Students alleged that though they had constituted a delegation to submit the memorandum, they were not given an opportunity to do so. Several of them sustained minor injuries in the process.

Some 5,000 students from 25 engineering colleges took part in the demonstration here while a similar agitation was staged at industrial town of Rourkela, where Biju Patnaik University of Technology (BPUT) was located.

“It is irrational and illogical to hold up students who are to clear a single paper in the first year from being promoted to the 4th year. So this system must be changed,” students mentioned in the memorandum. Questioning the quality of faculties in private engineering colleges, the students charged that it was unfair to expect students to pass the examination being held on a par with IIT standards. Sources said over 2,000 students were not promoted due to their failure to clear a single paper.

Following the violent protests by students in Bhubaneswar, the BPUT authorities were quick to make their stand clear.

“It is decided to convene an emergency meeting of the academic council of the university shortly to discuss the issues raised by students,” BPUT Vice-Chancellor Omkar Nath Mohanty said.

“The results sent to various colleges are provisional. Anomalies, if any, are to be pointed out by the colleges after discussions with students,” Mr. Mohanty said. He said genuine grievances would be addressed to by the university before finally releasing the results.

Registrar A.N. Acharya pointed out that most of the other technical universities of India had adopted rules for promotion similar to them and in some instances, more stringent.

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