Students on hunger strike at Ravenshaw University in Cuttack on Sunday.

Cuttack, Aug. 29: The agitation at Ravenshaw University over the East Hostel showed no signs of a letting up as the students’ hunger strike entered the 12th day today.

The students have been demanding a rollback of the decision to convert it to a girls’ hostel.

A few former presidents of Ravenshaw Students’ Union, including Archana Nayak (a former MP), visited the students today and extended support to them in an attempt to make the voices of the protestors heard both by the university authorities and the government.

“I came here to extend support to the strikers as theirs is a just demand. Ravenshaw is not just an educational institution. It is an historical memorial. Both the West Hostel and the East Hostel are part of the original heritage structure of Ravenshaw. A change in the 89-year-old tradition is unwarranted,” Archana Nayak told The Telegraph.

“More so as the problem of accommodation for girl students is not new. The university has failed to address this despite allocation of funds for the purpose.

“In fact, the funds remain unutilised. When both land and funds are available for construction of a new girls’ hostel, there is no rationale behind converting boys’ hostels into the girls’ ones,” Nayak said.

“It’s unfortunate that the vice-chancellor has not even visited the fasting students even after 12 days to break the stalemate,” the former MP added.

A five-member team from Chithi, a Bhubaneswar-based all-ladies Gandhian social service organisation, today visited the students in the hope of breaking the impasse, but failed.

“After discussion with the students we feel that their demand is justified. They demand retaining the East Hostel as a boys’ one after completion of its renovation and insist they will not call off the strike until the vice-chancellor comes personally and announces a roll back in the decision to covert it into a girls’ hostel”, Chithi’s director Bijaylaxmi Mohanty told The Telegraph.

Another former Ravenshaw student union president Suvendu Mohanty said: “What is a matter of concern is the health condition of the striking students. Some of them were hospitalised after their health deteriorated. However, they sat on strike again after being discharged.”

Vice-chancellor of Ravenshaw University Devdas Chhotray, met the hospitalised student in SCB Medical College Hospital.

The vice-chancellor appealed to the students there to stop the agitation as it is tarnishing the image of the age-old university.