Utkal varsity leaves students in a lurch

Utkal varsity leaves students in a lurch
PRAKASH DASH

BHUBANESWAR, DECEMBER 14: The Utkal University authorities went back on their promises to start regular classes and hostels leaving a large number of students desperately seeking alternative accommodation in the city. Students repeated pleas to Vice-Chancellor Prof Gokulananda Das to let them stay in the hostel went unheeded.

The students, who returned to the campus after two months since the university was closed, were forced to put up at hotel rooms. The University has students coming from far of places like Koraput, Rayagada, Nawarangpur, Sambalpur, Keonjhar, Calcutta and other places.

Students, who couldn't afford the hotel rooms and solely depended on the hostel mess and stipend money for their day-to-day living, had to stay at the railway platform.

On reaching the University on Monday, the students urged the VC to open the college as per his announcement in newspapers. But, the VC said that he had not made any announcement in the newspaper and asked them to go back home.

Following this theangry students gheroed him for some time.

"The VC is maintaining that post-cyclone repair work is going on in the hostels and it is not possible for us to stay there. But the fact is, things are as they were before and nothing has changed in the hostels," said acting general secretary of the University Student's Union Niranjan Nanda.

A number of students alleged that most of the colleges in the cyclone-affected districts have already opened and there was no reason why the University cannot open.

Meanwhile, more than two months of closure of the Utkal University campus has brought academic activities in this premier educational institution of the State to a standstill. The authorities seem to be in no hurry to get on with classes and are happy with the explanation that repair is yet to completed. However, official work continues in the campus as usual.

According to official sources, the University would require Rs 20 crore for reconstruction work which includes repair of boundary walls of the girls'hostels, restoration of power and water supply and renovation of hostel rooms. Though the authorities have placed their demand before the State Government and University Grants Commission (UGC), neither of them has responded as yet.

"We have entrusted the cement and wood repair works to the Orissa Police Housing Corporation. There is little we can do except reminding them the urgency of opening the university," said Das.