Bhubaneswar: The school and mass education department on Tuesday asked the principal of the erstwhile Biju Patnaik College - now bifurcated into junior and senior colleges - to hand over charge of the administration to the newly appointed principal of senior college and restrict himself to the affairs of the junior institute.

The department has warned that action would be taken against him if he fails to do that.

Higher secondary education director Sunderlal Seal said: "The principal has been asked to hand over the charge within seven days. If he fails to do it, we will take appropriate legal action and lodge an FIR against him."

Even though the college had been bifurcated three years ago into the junior and senior colleges, the college principal is yet to hand over the responsibilities to the new principal despite a number of orders from various authorities.

The new principal has not even been allotted a separate room and has to discharge his duties from the examination hall shared by other staff members of the college.

Set up in the 1980s, the college had been bifurcated into Plus Two and Plus III in 2014. While the junior college was named as Biju Patnaik (Junior) College of Science and Education, the senior institute was functioning under the aegis of Biju Patnaik (Degree) College of Science and Education.

According to the standing order, the principal, who was in charge before 2014 as principal of the entire college, should have handed over the charge and other financial powers entrusted to him.

"At city colleges such as the Deba Ray College, Maharshi Women's College and the Patia College, the power and function of the junior and senior college have been clearly defined. But, the game is totally different here," said a department official.

Degree college principal Satyajit Ray Choudhury has raised the issue with the government a number of time and each time the government has assured him of sorting out the problem at the earliest.

Besides controlling the administrative power, principal of the junior college, Subas Chandra Pradhan, is handling accounts of both the colleges though they should be handled separately.