Bhubaneswar: The Biju Patnaik University of Technology once again postponed its semester examinations on Tuesday in the wake of the nationwide general strike called by several groups in protest against caste-based reservation system.

Examinations on 55 subjects was scheduled to be held at 88 centres across the state on Tuesday.

On April 2, the varsity had cancelled all the semester examinations that was scheduled to be held on that day in view of the all-India strike called by members of Dalit communities to protest against the alleged toning down of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.

The repeated rescheduling of examinations has irked the students.

Disappointment and anguish were evident on the faces of the students who had turned up at the examination centres early on Tuesday morning. "We did not have any idea that the exam was rescheduled. This is nothing but unnecessary harassment for all of us," said Ashish Jena, a student.

"This is so unfair. Why are we being made to suffer for no fault of ours?" said another student, Subhasish Pal.

Varsity vice-chancellor Chitta Ranjan Tripathy said that Tuesday's examinations would be rescheduled to a date between April 12 and April 20.

"We will try our best to ensure that students do not face much problems," he said.

In another development, the varsity has decided to publish the examination results within 40 days of the last examination this year. The results will be published simultaneously and not in a phase-wise manner.

"Timely publication of results was a major challenge for the university in the last few years," felt educationist Amitabh Sadangi.

"The varsity board had also decided earlier that the examination dates mentioned in the academic calendar would not be changed under any circumstances. The effect of thebandhs of today and April 2 were not huge. So, the rescheduling the examination was not necessary," Sadangi said.