Bhubaneswar: Students on Monday staged hunger strike by locking down the main gate of the government-run
College of Engineering and Technology (CET), one of the reputed engineering colleges of the state, demanding unitary university status for the institution.
The agitators under the banner of CET Students’ Movement (CSM) said they will continue the strike till their demands are fulfilled. College buses and other vehicles could not enter into the campus. Students, teachers and staff members of the college were seen walking into the campus through a narrow gate. Two students fell unconscious during the strike. They were admitted into a private hospital.
Dibyaranjan Biswal, convener of the forum, said the CET is one of the oldest technical colleges of the state and functioning under
Biju Patnaik University of Technology (BPUT) from 2002. “We don’t want the college to remain under BPUT because it delays publication of results, examination schedule and issue of certificate. Syllabus of the university needs a makeover to suit industry,” he added.
In August 2014, the state government had planned to accord university status to the CET, Bhubaneswar. It had even constituted an expert committee under the chairmanship of the then
Veer Surendra Sai University of Technology vice-chancellor B K Nanda to give shapes to the proposals of upgrading the institute into unitary university on the lines of VSSUT.
Biswal said the status will ensure greater autonomy and freedom to the college. “It will reduce the pressure on BPUT. We have been demanding for university status the college since 2013, but nobody pays heed to our demands,” he added. CET principal Prashant Kumar Patra said he has written to the state government about the agitation of the students in the campus. “I have discussed with the senior officials of the
Skill Development and Technical Education department about the issue. We hope an amicable solution to the student movement will come out soon,” he added.
The college, an autonomous institute spread over 100 acres of area near Khandagiri cave in the city, was established in 1981. It was functioning under
Orissa University of Agriculture and Technology since inception. It came under BPUT in 2002. The college has been accredited ‘A’ grade from NAAC in 2017. It has around 4,500 students pursuing their education in 14 B Tech departments and 24 post graduate programmes. Most of the departments are running PhD programmes.
