Tension prevailed at the Utkal university as a large number of students, including girls, staged a demonstration demanding fulfilment of their 10-point charter of demands.
Later, they gheraoed the vice-chancellor’s (VC) office. They asked the other students to leave classrooms and locked several administrative chambers in the campus.
The situation particularly turned tense when police arrived and tried to prevent the agitators from barging into the chamber of VC Soumendra Mohan Patnaik. This led to a scuffle between police and students. But as the police personnel were outnumbered by the students, city DCP Anup Sahoo along with additional forces rushed to the spot and pacified the students.
The students’ demands included construction of a new entrance gate to the campus, providing adequate water supply in hostels, repair of hostel rooms and removal of encroachments in the campus. The students alleged that these are their longstanding demands, towards which the authorities have remained callous despite drawing their attention for umpteen times.
The VC assured them of fulfilling the demands and sought one month’s time for it.
The students said that they would wait for a month; and if their demands are not met by then, they would again resort to agitation.