Student unrest in Odisha’s Utkal varsity: VC resorts to sit-in, fasting

Bhubaneswar: Utkal University’s Vice-Chancellor Soumendra Mohan Patnaik along with some of his colleagues staged a sit-in in front of his office today over student unrest in the campus.

Namely ‘Introspective Silent Fasting’, the agitation began at 8 AM and would continue till indefinite period, reports said.

“We took the step to shun violence in the campus. The decision over holding students’ union poll will be taken by the PG council,” the VC said.

Patnaik’s move comes a day after a group of students, after sine die was lifted in the university, gheraoed his office yesterday demanding reconsideration of the decision to cancel the students’ union poll and conduct election in the varsity this year.

Reacting over the VC’s step, Higher Education Minister Ananta Das said, “Staging a sit-in is Patnaik’s own decision. He didn’t discuss with the state government about it before doing so. A report will be sought from him in this regard.”

Notably, Utkal University was closed sine die on September 18 following sporadic incidents of violence inside the campus ahead of the students’ union elections. The decision of the authorities came after several low-intensity crackers were hurled inside the campus forcing the cops to clamp Section 144.