Bhubaneswar: Tension ran high at Utkal University campus here Monday as students and police were involved in a scuffle after the former were not allowed into the Vice Chancellor Soumendra Mohan Patnaik’s office to hand over their 10-point charter of demands.
Sources said hundreds of students had been staging a demonstration in front of the VC’s office demanding fulfillment of their 10-point charter of demands since morning.
It was when they tried to enter the VC’s chamber that the police force that was already deployed at the spot stopped them, leading to a face-off.
In no time, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Anup Sahoo and a team from Sahid Nagar police station reached the spot and pacified the students.
The agitating students alleged that there are several issues affecting the campus environment but the authority has been indifferent to their demands.
Gopabandu Jena, a first year student, said, “Inmates of all the hostels here are reeling under bad facilities. The irony is that the authorities had the money to install a statue of Mahatma Gandhi but they don’t have the money to improve the infrastructure of the hostels.”
Naina Prusty of the Girls’ Hostel 7 said that walls of the hostels are in decrepit condition, water is contaminated and food is unpalatable. “The strength of this hostel is 600, but we don’t have adequate drinking water facility. The water is also unsafe to use.”
The students also demanded installation of CCTV cameras at strategic spots, removal of slums from the campus area, new entrance near Raja Hotel and converting the present entrance into an exit, functioning of newly constructed buildings that are under lock and key, fixed time for examinations and results and proper hostel management.
After much pondering, the VC agreed to fulfil all of their demands before Gandhi Jayanti, October 2.
The VC said, “We will write to Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation and police in three days and will ask them to complete the tasks of water sanitation and security at the hostels.”
Water purifiers will be installed at all the hostels within a week and before water will be provided to the inmates through tankers, said Patnaik. The hostel infrastructure facility will be developed during puja vacation, he stated.
Meanwhile, the students video-recorded the statements of the vice chancellor saying that such promises were made earlier too.
