The BPUT camp office in Bhubaneswar and (above) a security guard walks past a door broken by agitating students on Wednesday. Telegraph picture and picture by Sanjib Mukherjee

Bhubaneswar, Aug. 22: About 100 students of various engineering colleges affiliated to Biju Patnaik University of Technology (BPUT) today ransacked the camp office here protesting against the shifting of the office from the capital to Rourkela.

The students barged into the camp office under the banner of the All-Odisha BPUT Students’ Association and damaged furniture and glasses. They also forced the varsity employees to move out of the office and locked its main gate for about three hours.

Another group of students stopped buses of various engineering colleges at different locations in the city and asked other students to join them in their protest. Classes in at least 40 BPUT-affiliated colleges were affected.

In the afternoon, the students reached Kharavela Nagar and locked up the office of the director of technical education, training and employment. Slamming the move to shift the camp office, they also shouted slogans against the varsity authorities.

Police rushed to the spot and brought the situation under control. Through the police, the students submitted a memorandum to the higher authorities urging them to cancel the decision of moving the BPUT camp office.

Yesterday, the agitating students had protested in front of the BPUT main campus in Rourkela and submitted a memorandum to the varsity’s vice-chancellor, whose office is also located in Rourkela.

“Out of some 99 engineering colleges affiliated to the university, 70 are located in and around Bhubaneswar. By shifting the camp office, the varsity authorities want to avoid listening to our grievances. The authorities know that the students will not travel all the way to Rourkela to air their grievances,” said Partha, a student.

BPUT vice-chancellor J.K. Sathpathy said: “We are acting according to the BPUT Act and cannot go beyond that. If the Act requires us to operate from Rourkela, we would do that unless we have further orders from the government.”

Officials of the varsity in Bhubaneswar, however, rued that some persons who had a “vested interest” were instigating the agitating students.

“The students have little to do with the camp office. They are working on behest of someone,” said a senior BPUT official.

The continuing protest has affected official work of not only the BPUT, but also the JEE cell that operates from the same campus. “The ongoing counselling session was seriously affected because of the protests,” said secretary of Odisha Joint Entrance Examination Priyabrata Sahoo.