Students of College of Agricultural Engineering and Technology protest outside their campus. Picture by Ashwinee Pati

Bhubaneswar, April 10: Students of the College of Agricultural Engineering and Technology (CAET) under the Orissa University of Technology (OUAT) today took to the streets demanding creation of jobs in various agriculture related departments of the state government.

“In the absence of jobs, our qualification and experience is being wasted. Professionally trained agriculture engineers who ought to be recruited by the state to modernise the sector are forced to join banks or take up marketing jobs,” said student Deepak Kumar Mishra.

The four-year degree Btech in agricultural engineering deals with the application of engineering science and technology to agricultural production and processing. CAET is the only college in the state offering this specialised degree.

Earlier, students graduating from CAET were being absorbed as assistant engineers in departments of agriculture resources, water resources, lift irrigation and rural development. However, the state government stalled the recruitment process in 1995 following a court case that was disposed only in 2011 August.

“All these years the government did not recruit students, who were forced to take up other jobs. But now that the case is over, the government should address our problems,” said Brajesh Kumar Panda, another student.

The students said, while there are 56 vacancies in the directorate of agriculture, the directorate of horticulture has 17 vacancies. Similarly, the lift irrigation department and the ground water department have 42 and six vacancies, respectively.

“We are trained on the mechanisation of agricultural and other specific areas such as ploughing, managing harvesting and loss,” said Asabari Sahu, another student.

The students who took out a rally before sitting on a dharna outside the college said they would resort to a more serious agitation if their demands were not met by May.