Students at Utkal University have claimed that there is a top-level conspiracy underway to transfer the university’s land to the Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA). Exasperated by the problem, the students set fire to tires as a form of protest near the VC office and the university gate.
They yelled anti-Vice-Chancellor (VC) slogans.
There is a plan, according to a student leader, for the BDA to establish food stands and a park inside the university campus. “For many years, we have opposed allowing outsiders to enter the campus. The BDA will make it easier for everyone to enter if it establishes a park and operates food vendors. Students will continue to feel unsafe on campus when outsiders are causing trouble.
The student also wanted to know if the VC would formally promise that nothing bad would happen to the campus or its students following the BDA’s arrival.
According to a different student leader, not much is being done in the name of development by the university administration. The university intends to give the BDA access to 20 acres of its property. In addition to a lack of various facilities, we are lacking lecturers. Hostels are poorly managed. He bemoaned that before moving forward with the construction of a park and food stands through the BDA, the university administration ought to take care of these matters.
