AIDSO supporters protest against police atrocity on RCM students on Mahatma Gandhi Road in Bhubaneswar on Tuesday. Picture by Ashwinee Pati

Bhubaneswar, April 29: Students of the Regional College of Management, who have not been given their degree certificates, can expect their woes to end shortly.

The Biju Patnaik University of Technology authorities today decided that a decision on the fate of nearly 1,500 students of the management institute, who are going without degree certificates, would be taken by May 7.

The announcement came after hundreds of students of the college continued their demonstration in Lower PMG Square accusing the police of high handedness on the agitating students last night.

The students, who have been on an agitation in Lower PMG Square since April 22, the day when they had a scuffle with the police while they were trying to enter Raj Bhavan to meet the governor. Last night, the students alleged that the police tried to forcefully evict them from the agitation spot. The Lower PMG Square turned into a battlefield late last night and there was a clash between the police and protesters. While around a dozen students, including many girls, were injured in the clash, the students ransacked two police vehicles in retaliation. The police beefed up security last night.

“We were sitting peacefully and they tried to take us forcibly. When we protested, they started assaulting us,” said Raza Quadir, a student. The students also alleged that the policemen molested a few girl students sitting on a demonstration and said they would approach the state women’s commission to lodge a complaint.

“They could have taken the help of women police personnel, but instead, the male officers tried to evict the women protesters. The way the agitating students fighting for their rights were dealt with was unfortunate,” said another agitator. Earlier during the day, a four-member delegation of RCM students met the secretary of the employment, technical education and training department C.S. Kumar over their long-standing demand to get original registration cards and degree certificates, which were denied to them by the college authorities so far.

Kumar said: “The delay was being caused as there were about half a dozen court cases by RCM and the matter was sub-judice. Now that the RCM has withdrawn its cases, the BPUT will decide on the matter.”

Prabir Pal, the director of RCM, said: “We have agreed to all their terms and have taken students from OJEE from the last academic session. We have also withdrawn all the cases against the BPUT. Their team came for an academic audit and completed it about 15 days ago. I do not know why there should be so much of delay when the students are suffering,” said Pal.

Much before the agitation at Lower PMG Square, the were on hunger strike in their institute since February 1, demanding original degree certificates from the Biju Patnaik University of Technology.

The problem is a result of a long-standing tussle between the authorities of RCM and the BPUT for the past five years.

While the university wanted the RCM authorities to admit students from Odisha Joint Entrance Examination (OJEE) list, the former admitted students from Combined Admission Test (CAT), Xavier Aptitude Test (XAT) and Management Aptitude Test (MAT). The BPUT has, therefore, not provided original certificates to previous four batches of the college.

Students’ organisations including All India Democratic Students’ Organisation condemned the forceful approach of the police and demanded action against the police personnel involved in the clash. “The police never acts tough on the protesters during the Assembly session. It seems that the students on agitation are being treated like criminals though they have been fighting for their genuine rights,” said state secretary of All India Democratic Students’ Organisation Shibasis Praharaj.