Bhubaneswar, Sept. 3: Protests against shifting of the Biju Patnaik University of Technology camp office from the capital to Rourkela continued today as students, under the banner of Biju Patnaik Students’ Association, took out a rally on the Mahatma Gandhi Marg.

The students raised slogans against the varsity authorities.

They stopped buses of various technical colleges and burnt the effigies of Biju Patnaik University of Technology (BPUT) vice-chancellor J.K. Satpathy, registrar P.K. Satpathy, director of examinations S.P. Mohanty and secretary of the directorate of technical education and training Chandra Sekhar Kumar.

The situation became worse after students from a private engineering college opposed the forcible stopping of college buses. Students of Oxford College of Engineering and Technology demonstrated in front of the Mancheswar police station this morning demanding action against the Biju Patnaik Students’ Association, who allegedly threw stones at their college bus.

“A group of agitators tried to stop our bus but when driver did not halt, one of them hurled a stone at the bus,” a student from the college said.

Inspector in charge of Mancheswar police station Bharat Sahoo said the students demanded arrest of the person who hurled the stone at their bus. “When we asked them to lodge a formal complaint, they refused to do so and dispersed from the area,” said Sahoo, adding that no complaint was lodged by the college authorities.

The association members justified their action. “Despite our peaceful protests across the state, our opinion was not considered. Therefore, we resorted to violent means, which might get worse in the coming days,” said Sunil Panda, convener of the association.

Holding BPUT officials responsible for the deteriorating standards of the university, the students alleged that though nine years had passed since the laying of the foundation stone of the varsity building in Rourkela, construction was yet to be completed.

“The shifting of the camp office would affect the students who need to frequently visit the office for day-to-day issues. For example, students were required to go to the camp office here for the delay in getting the original certificates. Now they will have to travel all the way to Rourkela,” said Sovan Mishra, president of the association. This apart, the students rued the delay in examinations and publication of results.

“Although the M Tech students are into their third semester now, their first semester exam is yet to be completed,” said Asutosh Sahoo, secretary of the association.

The varsity’s decision to allow working of the registrar from the Bhubaneswar camp office for a week every month will serve little purpose, said the protesting students.

“Our association is not opposed to the setting up of the office in Rourkela, but we object to the moving of the entire operations from Bhubaneswar,” said Sahoo. Earlier, two other students’ bodies — BPUT students Union and All Odisha BPUT Students’ Association — had been protesting against the shifting of the camp office.

When contacted, the vice-chancellor diverted all queries to the registrar, who was unavailable for comment.