Rourkela, Dec. 11: MBBS students of the 2015-16 batch of Hi-Tech Medical College here launched a relay hunger strike today in protest against the Medical Council of India's refusal to renew permission for their admission.
The permission for the admission into 2015-16 batch in the college has been cancelled as per the Supreme Court order.
"Our future has been pushed into uncertainty," said protesting student Hiranmaya Sarangi.
"We are going to lose our career for no fault of us. This must stop," said another student, Anup Agarwal.
Director of Hi-Tech Medical College and Hospital Tirupati Panigrahi said: "We will file a curative or writ petition in the Supreme Court praying for a revision of the order."
The students, who are on the hunger strike, claimed that the Union health ministry had given permission to admit students for the 2015-16 batch following an order by the Orissa High Court on September 25 last year.
The name of Hi-Tech Medical College had also appeared in the website of Medical Council of India (MCI). Following this, they had taken admission and subsequently appeared for their first semester examination starting from January 18.
However, the MCI later filed a special leave petition Supreme Court against this admission. The college management challenged this, but in vain.
"Unfortunately, we have lost the case. However, we will do whatever possible for the students as it is a question of their future," said Panigrahi.
State health department officials refused to comment on the matter.
"We will go by the order of the apex court," said a senior health official requesting anonymity.
The students alleged that they were threatened by the college authorities to leave the campus and warned about action against as they "are no more the students of the college".
College principal Tapas Bhattacharya, however, said: "I have not threatened them. But, I just asked them not to take law into their hand. Otherwise, I will be forced to call police to evict them."
The students said they would continue with their agitation. "If we don't get back our studentship and our results are not declared, we will be compelled to go for fast unto death," said a protesting student.
BPUT question leak
The vice-chancellor of Biju Patnaik University of Technology (BPUT) has constituted a five-member team to probe into the question paper leak case. "I have asked the team to submit a report within five days," said vice-chancellor Shyam Sunder Pattnaik.
Patnaik hinted that a private engineering college was responsible for the question paper leak. "Our system is fool proof and cannot be hacked. Someone did it to defame the university," said Pattnaik.
