Cuttack: Students of National Law University (Odisha) have been on an indefinite strike for more than 48 hours here in Cuttack.
The protesting students cite the college administration’s gross lethargy, poor infrastructure, obstinate policies, poor living conditions in university hostels and the alleged inefficacy of faculty members to tackle these issues as some of the reasons why they are on strike.
The student body of NLU-O released a list of grievances July 24 demanding immediate action from college authorities.
Nluo students sit on an indefinite protest starting from today . Our grievances have constantly been ignored. In this thread we will list down all the promises that have been made which remain unfulfilled till date. #protest #nluoprotest #taythamilega pic.twitter.com/veoKST0sxE
— NLUO (@SBAnluo) July 24, 2019
Some of the issues plaguing the students are:
Repair work in the Girls’ hostel
The student body claims that girls at the university are being forced to live in ruined conditions.
“There are non-functional geysers, leakage in the pipelines causing multiple rooms to be constantly flooded and infected with fungus, in Girl’s hostel-2. Despite being assured of the repairs, actions have not been undertaken,” read the statement.
Lack of a good library
The university is still lacking a world class library despite repeated promises from the authorities.
“A world-class library had been promised since the inception of the institution, but no progress has been made other than the completion of the basic structure,” the student body says.
Unreasonable fee hike
The protesting students have demanded answers for an unreasonable fee hike of Rs 30,000 for the incoming batch. The sum would take the total payable fee for the academic year to Rs 2 lakh.
Faulty air conditioners
The student body said that the air conditioners inside classrooms are not functioning properly.
“ACs in the classrooms are not functioning during the working hours. No satisfactory explanation has been provided for the same,” read the statement.
Hostel curfew
The student body states that the university promised to do away with hostel curfew timings if parents of 50 per cent of the students gave their consent. However, the curfew is still in place despite signed consent from parents.
It is still unclear when the protests would be called off but as of now the students have gone out all guns blazing against the allegedly incompetent authorities at the university.
PNN
