The 15-day-long strike by the students of the College of Agricultural Engineering and Technology (CAET) of the Odisha University of Agriculture Technology (OUAT) was called off on Tuesday after the State Government gave an assurance that it would soon convene a meeting under the chairmanship of Finance Minister Prasanna Acharya to discuss creation of more job opportunities for agricultural engineers.
“The Government Chief Whip in the State Assembly assured us that he would ensure a high-level meeting under chairmanship of the Finance Minister between April 2 and 5 to discuss our demands and requested us not to resort to strike for three months.
If the Government fails to take any positive steps by July in creating more posts, we will go on a fast-unto-death stir from August,” said CAET Students’ Union president Santosh Kumar Biswal.
“The Government must restructure the agricultural engineering service cadre in the line of other engineering cadre of the State and create more posts to recruit fresh agricultural engineering graduates,” said Biswal.
He blamed the Government for not appointing agricultural engineer as Subject Matter Specialists (SMSs) in the Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs). “There is a provision of recruiting at least one agricultural engineer as an SMS in each KVK. Although there are 30 KVKs in the State, there are only seven agricultural engineers appointed in the KVKs,” said Biswal. The agitating students also urged the OUAT Vice-Chancellor to take initiatives to restore the employment cell of the university on a priority basis.