Hundreds of students of the Berhampur University on Thursday held an agitation and detained all Brahmapur and Chhatrapur bound buses near the campus, protesting the callous attitude of the university authorities to their demand for running more buses from the campus to the adjoining towns.
Even though the demand has been a long standing one, the authorities have not paid any heed, said the students and alleged that there is a lack of coordination in the statements of the Vice-Chancellor and the Chairman of the PG Council on the running of buses which enraged the students.
“When we wanted to know the action taken on the long standing demand for additional bus services for students, the Vice Chancellor reportedly said that the file was with the PG Council chairman. But, on the other hand, when the PG Council chairman was asked, he said his office had cleared the file and it had been pending with the VC. So, it is clear that both the VC and the PG Council chairman are trying to pass the buck and create confusion among the students,” said a leader of the Students’ union of the university.
Being informed about the road blockade, VC Prof Deepak Kumar Behera, Registrar Prof BP Rath and PG Council chairman Prof AK Panigrahi discussed with the representatives of the agitating students and assured them to fulfil their demands soon. later, the students withdrew their agitation.
It is pertinent to know here that the university campus is located around 15 km from the Brahmapur city for which the university has already provided four buses for transportation of students to the campus. There are also buses for the students to come from district headquarters Chhatrapur to the campus. However, the students are not able to get a seat as the number of the day scholars using the buses has increased. Particularly, the female students are facing a lot of inconveniences in not getting proper transport to the university. The students also demanded extension of Chhatrapur buses up to Ganjam, provision of street light in the campus and supply of water filters in hostels.