Keonjhar: Citizens of Keonjhar district have opposed the government’s decision to manage the Government Engineering College of Keonjhar in public-private partnership (PPP) mode. Sources said after taking the decision, the Skill Development and Technical Education department has written a letter Monday to the Information and Public Relations department to invite a request of the proposal for DEA empanelled transaction advisor for providing advisory services for the above college through PPP. After this letter was issued, many civil societies in the Keonjhar district expressed their strong resentment.
According to sources, the college is conceived on the campus of Orissa School of Mining Engineering, Keonjhar with a single subject that is mining under the Ministry of Industry. Later it was closed in 1999. After several protests, the admissions again started in the year 2001 as a self-financing Engineering Degree College.
Later other subjects were opened. After several student strikes and local movements the college got government status as ‘Government College of Engineering’ and moved to its building located near Dhrupada of Keonjhar. After several demands, the infrastructure of the college has been expanded with crores of rupees. Instead of enriching the quality of technical education, the management is trying to privatise it, sources added.
According to the college sources, about 1,500 students are studying in Mining, Mineral, Civil, Mechanical, Computer Science, Metallurgy, and Electrical streams. Due to a shortage of staff and other issues, many student movements are taking place. At present, the college is running with only 19 permanent faculties including the principal, 17 contractual, and 20 guest faculties. It is the only government engineering college in northern Odisha. “This is the first step to operate the college in PPP mode by inviting bids to engage advisory services. The college has faced several struggles to become a government institute from a self-financing college.
Hence the government should operate the college under its management,” said Amit Das Mohapatra, ex-student and member of the Board of Governors. “The government is trying to encourage privatisation of education like other sectors. We protest such steps of the state government. We have seen the failure of PPP mode in health, communication, and other sectors. Instead of this, the government should ensure better education by engaging better faculties, and facilities for the students” said Ajay Sahu, President of Citizen Forum, Keonjhar.
