BPUT students’ delegation protests in front of minister Pratap Keshari Deb’s residence near AG Square in Bhubaneswar on Wednesday. Picture by Ashwinee Pati

Bhubaneswar, Aug. 28: Student representatives of Biju Patnaik University of Technology (BPUT) demanded a judicial probe into suicide of students, who allegedly took their lives due to fee hike by the colleges.

Arbitrary fee hike by private engineering colleges under BPUT has caused 15 students to end their lives over the past eight years, alleged a group of students, who met technical education minister Pratap Keshari Deb today and urged him to probe those cases.

Around 100 student representatives handed a memorandum to the minister and urged him to help constitute a students’ protection committee under his chairmanship.

“The committee should include the secretary of technical education department, vice-chancellor of BPUT, director general of police, student representatives and civil society members. They will be responsible in addressing all such complaints,” said president of the BPUT Students’ Protection Council Biplab Prakash Mohanty.

The students said the state government should take immediate steps to punish the erring college authorities, who raised tuition fees and made it unaffordable for many students who were forced to commit suicide.

“College officials, who charged excess fee must be punished under the Odisha Professional Education Act, 2007, and a white paper must be published on how many complaints has the government received so far and what action it has taken till date,” said an agitating student, Smruti Ranjan.

They also demanded immediate steps such as a law to stop collection of excess fee violating the government norms. “Owners of such colleges should be arrested. Heavy penalty must be imposed on them and their affiliations cancelled,” said Sthita Pragyan Sahoo, another student.

The students also stressed for expediting launch of a toll-free number and web-based grievance portal. “We want to avoid premature deaths due to exploitation by college managements” said Alok Nayak, a student, adding that the guilty college authorities must pay a compensation of Rs 10 lakh to the family of all such students who died due to arbitrary fee hike.