Bhubaneswar, April 10: The suicide of a 19-year-old tech student here on Monday allegedly on account of harassment by college authorities over pending dues has exposed the absence of a mechanism for students to vent their grievances.
In February this year, the technical education department had directed officials of Biju Patnaik University of Technology (BPUT) to set up a grievance redress forum, one at its permanent office in Rourkela and another at the camp office in Bhubaneswar by March-end besides launching toll-free numbers for registering complaints.
The idea was mooted after a third-year student of Mahavir Institute of Engineering and Technology here ended his life as his college authorities allegedly denied him permission to appear for the semester exam following non-payment of fees.
However, BPUT has failed to meet the deadline. Technical education secretary Chandra Shekhar Kumar said that technical institutions in the state also did not have ombudsmen to address students’ grievances.
“We have asked the vice-chancellor of BPUT to expedite the work on the grievance redress forum. We will also ensure that ombudsmen are also nominated at the college level,” said Kumar.
However, he said the fee regulation committee of the department was conducting surprise checks in colleges on receiving “specific” complaints.
“But the problem is that we do not get any written complaints. After the Odisha Joint Entrance Examination process gets over, we will hold a meeting with the stakeholders and ensure that there is a healthy atmosphere in colleges. We don’t want anything that will deter outstation candidates from taking admissions here,” he added.
A four-member sub-committee of the fee structure panel today visited Dhaneswar Rath Institute of Engineering and Management Studies (Driems) in Cuttack to probe allegations of the authorities charging fees more than what has been prescribed by them.
“We have included one member from the Driems management in the committee so that the probe is impartial,” said a senior technical education officer.
The team will also look into complaints on inadequacy of competent faculties, poor hostel management, ill-equipped laboratories and infrastructures in some institutions.
The technical education department has directed BPUT to initiate an internal probe into the suicide of Sudeshna Saha, a first-year student of NM Institute for Engineering and Technology at Patrapada and submit the report by Thursday. Her college teachers were allegedly pressurising her to pay the pending fees. Police have arrested a staff member in this connection.
The department today directed OJEE authorities to carry a distinct footnote on prohibition of capitation fee in the OJEE-2013 brochure. The directive said: “It should be brought to the information of public guardians and students that the collection of excess fees prescribed by the fee structure committee is illegal and punishable by law.”
OJEE authorities have to mention the fee amount to be charged by each college in the brochure.
But the decision is only for colleges and universities under the state government. The matter of including other private universities is currently sub judice.
In another development, students under the BPUT Students’ Association today met governor S.C. Jamir and urged him to take steps to check charging of excess capitation fee.
