Bhubaneswar, Oct. 17: Engineering students in nearly 30 colleges across the state boycotted their classes today demanding a centralised placement system. The students, who belong to colleges affiliated to Biju Patnaik University of Technology (BPUT), were agitating under the banner of All Orissa BPUT Students’ Association (AOBSA).

“IT companies are mostly visiting the major engineering colleges for placements. As a result, the lesser-known institutions, which also have deserving students, are losing out. We want a centralised placement system so that all students get an equal chance to participate in the recruitment process and land jobs,” said Nirmal Mohapatra, former general secretary of the AOBSA.

Nirmal alleged that the members of the association had been pursuing this issue with the authorities of BPUT for over two years but the suggestion had fallen on deaf ears.

“The vice-chancellor (J. K. Satpathy) had told us earlier that companies are interested in visiting select colleges and would not come to the university. This exposes the weakness and poor standard and reputation of BPUT.

“We had raised this issue again 20 days ago and he had assured us he would take action when colleges reopened after the Puja vacation. However, we have not received any response from the authorities as yet,” he said.

He added that the agitation has found support from engineering students in Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Bhadrak, Balasore, Jeypore and Rayagada.

Bijay Basantia, working president of AOBSA, said they had carried out an online “survey” on Facebook to map the opinions of students regarding the issue of centralised placements.

“Over 94 per cent of 12,000 students supported it. The ultimate goal for every student is to get a job. If the authorities continue to ignore our pleas, we will hit the streets and have all BPUT-affiliated colleges closed for an indefinite period,” he said.

A group of around 400 students also gheroaed the BPUT office at Gandamunda here today and discussed their problems with BPUT registrar P. K. Satpathy.

They also stopped buses of certain engineering colleges and asked the students to return home.

The registrar said the suggestion for a centralised placement system was under active consideration.

“After our permanent head office comes up at Rourkela, we will strengthen the placement system. At present, the university has no placement cell so we have asked all colleges to go for more aggressive placement drives,” Satpathy said.