Bhubaneswar, Oct. 26: Private institutes across the state today came out in support of the Sum hospital and the Siksha 'O' Anusandhan University that are mired in controversy following a fire mishap on October 18 that claimed 25 lives.

Condemning the "illegal arrest" of the founder of the medical college and hospital, Manoj Nayak, members of at least 1,000 technical educational institutes in the state have announced a dawn-to-dusk strike tomorrow.

About 10,000 supporters from these institutes will take out a march from Master Canteen Square to Lower PMG Square tomorrow and hand over a memorandum to chief minister Naveen Patnaik.

Odisha Private Engineering College Association secretary Binod Dash said: "Who was arrested when more than 70 children died of Japanese encephalitis? Why wasn't anyone arrested for the Sishu Bhavan tragedy or the fire at SCB hospital? Why does the government treat educational entrepreneurs as criminals? Why aren't the collector or DG held responsible if any incident happens in their jurisdiction? The law should be equal for both government and private entities."

Demanding Nayak's immediate release, the members rued that the manner, in which the state government was dealing with education entrepreneurs, was "extremely disappointing".

"When an entrepreneur starts an institute, he appoints highly qualified people to man different sections. The promoter may not have the time to look into all the necessary aspects of the organisation. Also enforcing authorities of various government bodies are responsible for monitoring the compliance. But, the government choose to spare everybody else and arrest only the entrepreneur," said Odisha Private Engineering Schools' Association secretary Saroj Sahoo, adding that not a single government medical college had been established in the past 20 years.

"How can the government solely blame Manoj Nayak and get away unscathed when only three out of 500 clinical establishments, including state hospitals, have valid fire safety and occupancy certificates," said one of the members.

The Odisha Private Medical and Dental College Association as well as the Odisha Pharmacy College Association were also present at the meet and demanded Nayak's release and withdrawal of all criminal cases filed against him.