Students of Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad, launched a campaign on microblogging site Twitter, demanding IIT-status for their 90-year-old cradle.

The campaign launched with #IITDhanbad and #tableiitamendact hashtags on Sunday rode high in Twitter’s trending topics. 

Students and alumni across the country and even abroad joined the campaign and tweeted in support of the IIT-tag. By midnight, a total of 1,43,371 tweets were posted, tagging the Prime Minister’s office, Union HRD minister Smriti Irani and ministry of HRD.

“The campaign was highly successful and we are awaiting response from the Prime Minister’s office and the HRD minister,” said Ankit Bansal, final year mechanical engineering student.

Some students even tweeted more than 200 times individually.

“We don’t demand it, we deserve it,” “We will fight until we achieve #IIT Dhanbad,” “We believe in you Modiji and now its time to implement on the statement of converting ISM to IIT,” “ISM must become IIT because of its legacy,” read some of the tweets.

The premier mining cradle has been seeking the IIT tag for years now.  

Last year, an expert panel headed by former chairman of IIT-Bombay Ashok Mishra had pointed out “serious lacunae” in the qualifications of ISM’s faculty.

The panel’s report said that faculty members narrowly falling short of the yardstick should be sent for training to institutions like IITs or Indian Institute of Science (IISc) so that they could be brought on a par with IIT faculty, while younger teachers, who did not have a PhD, should be asked to get one from IITs, IISc or any reputable institution abroad.

Faculty members who were at an advanced age and found lacking in capabilities might be offered voluntary retirement.