As students of the Medical Physics Department of the Sambalpur University continued their agitation, Sambalpur district Collector on Tuesday held a meet involving the university authorities and students to sort out the problems.
Notably, the students have resorted to a stir in the new department after there was a plan to wind it up. Three years back, the students had taken admission in the ‘Medical Physics’ course where radiation study is an important component. But the course could not run smoothly due to the negligence of the then VC and course coordinator.
It was alleged that by just downloading a course from net, Prof CR Tripathy, the then VC and the course coordinator, had opened it hurriedly for the sole intention of taking credit. The preliminary permission from the Atomic Energy Research Centre (AERC) was not taken then. At the same time, there was neither basic infrastructure in the university for the particular course nor teachers.
Hence, the university decided to close the department. They further decided to refund the excess fees taken from the students since it was a self financing course.
But after the regular VC had gone on leave, the students again reiterated their demand for degree in Medical Physics and even went to the extent of heckling the in-charge VC Prof AK Dasmahapatra.
However, Collector of Sambalpur Subham Saxena called a meeting where it was decided that the students could get the required practical training in the Acharya Harihar Cancer Research Institute at Cuttack, particularly on the subject of ‘Radiation.’ A professor from the Physics Department of the university would go soon to Cuttack to explore the possibility, said sources.