Patna, Oct. 24: Students of three engineering colleges in Motihari, Darbhanga and Nalanada are livid over the poor infrastructure facilities at the institutes.
It has been four years since chief minister Nitish Kumar set up Motihari Engineering College, Darbhanga Engineering College, Nalanda Engineering College (Chandi) and Gaya Engineering College. But the colleges are yet to meet the students’ expectations, particularly on infrastructure facilities.
On October 21, over 100 students of the three colleges staged a march from Kargil Chowk to Chajjubagh in protest against the state government’s alleged negligence towards their respective institutes.They also staged a dharna in front of the residence of science and technology minister Gautam Singh. Over 100 students had taken part in the protest.
Under the banner of All Bihar Engineering Students’ Association, the agitators staged a hunger strike at Kargil Chowk in support of their demands.
Their demands included placement facility for final year students, hostels and transportation.
“We have repeatedly raised our concern for better infrastructure. But our pleas have fallen on deaf ears,” a demonstrator said.
Alok Kumar, a third-year student from Motihari Engineering College, told The Telegraph: “Our institute was set up in 2008. But even after four years, the college is yet to provide the necessary infrastructure in accordance with All India Council of Technical Education norms.”
Kumar added that in his college, there are only six permanent faculty members to teach more than 400 students. He alleged that the director of the college, S.N. Ojha, was a physics graduate with no technical background.
The students claimed that their demands include removal of Ojha from his post and appointment of a technically qualified person.
Dinesh Tiwari, another final year student of the same college, said: “As there is no hostel, the students are left with no option but to stay in Motihari. There is no transport facility and the students have to face a hard time in reaching college from Motihari town, which is around 15km away.
Dinesh added: “You can imagine the type of college we are studying in as we don’t even have a proper laboratory.”
Abhilash Kumar, a student of Nalanda Engineering College said: “The condition in our college is worse than Motihari Engineering College. Our institute is running from a four-room rented building. We don’t have hostels, laboratories or transport facility. For practical classes, we have to go to Bhagalpur Engineering College and complete a year’s work in a week.”
The students claimed that these problems were not confined to Motihari Engineering College only but Gaya Engineering College, Nalanda Engineering College and Darbhanga Engineering College, too, suffer from inadequate teachers, improper lab facility and lack of hostels.
This year, the institutes were brought under the ambit of Aryabhatt Knowledge University (AKU).
AKU vice-chancellor S.N. Guha said the university was aware of the problems in the engineering colleges and the varsity was trying to sort them out.
He added: “We have asked all engineering colleges to submit a list of the exisiting teachers’ strength and the sanctioned teachers’ strength. Thereafter, we will request the government to appoint teachers in these colleges.”
