The protesting students on the fourth day of the hunger strike. Picture by Biplab Basak

Siliguri, June 10: The hunger strike, resorted to by the 100-odd students of Jalpaiguri Government Engineering College to protest against the poor infrastructure of the institution, entered the fourth day today.

Requests from the West Bengal University of Technology to withdraw the agitation and appear for the ongoing exams from tomorrow seem to have made no impact.

Third-year students of information technology, electronics and communication and computer science had resorted to fasting from Thursday. They alleged that since no classes have been held in the past six months because of the absence of faculty members, they are unprepared for the third-year first semester exams that started on June 7. During the past three days, more than 10 students have been taken ill and four are still under treatment at the local district hospital, sources said.

“We had a talk with the vice-chancellor. He insisted that we appear for the exams, failing which we might lag behind,” said Subir Sau, general secretary of the students’ Union. “But we are clear about our intentions and have intimated him our decision to continue with the protest unless any specific assurance reaches us.”

Insisting that protesters should first sit for their exams, Ashok Ranjan Thakur, the vice-chancellor of the university of technology, admitted that these departments were plagued by faculty and infrastructure-related problems. “But we are planning to sort them out. However, students should abide by academic norms and sit for the exams instead of continuing with their agitation.”

Thakur said a meeting has been called on Tuesday wherein the principal, a few senior faculty members and state higher education minister Sudarshan Roychoudhury are expected to be present. Confirmed the meeting, J. Jhampati, the principal of the college, said: “Officials of the state higher education department university of technology are aware of the problem. We are banking on Tuesday’s meeting and hope for some positive results.”