The agitation of the visually impaired students enrolled in various courses of vocational training at the National Institute for Empowerment of Persons with Visual Disabilities (NIEPVD) continued on Monday. On the demands of payment of pocket money and receipt of laptops the students of the premier institute for visually impaired are on path of agitation from February 13. The students are engaging in lock out of the institute due to which its day to day activities are being adversely affected.

 On the day, the authorities tried to persuade the agitators to end their protest. The director of the NIEPVD Anuradha Dalmiya told The Pioneer that the students were shown the letter of ministry of social justice and empowerment in which it is clearly mentioned that under the new scheme there is no provision of payment of stipend. The authorities also showed the purchase order of laptops but the students termed the letter as a forged one and continued their protest. The presence of police in the campus agitated the protesters further. “The authorities are now trying to threaten us by Police. The policemen threatened us and said that they can arrest us as section 144 is enforced in the state. We also offered our arrests but the police backed off,’’ said one of an agitated student.

The students are also observing relay hunger strike to press for their demands.

The students are agitated that they are getting a monthly pocket money of only Rs 250 though the ministry has declared an amount of Rs 2500 per month. They are also annoyed at delay in distribution of laptops.

 The officials of the institute however maintain that the order for 274 laptops has been placed by the institute.