Cuttack, April 20: Dhaneswar Rath Institute of Engineering and Management Studies (Driems), located at Tangi around 20km from here, was declared closed indefinitely today following students’ unrest on the campus.

The indefinite closure of the college has been declared for the second and third-year students while the classes for the first and final-year students would continue as per schedule, said Driems officials.

Tension had erupted after a group of second and third-year students went on the rampage on the campus in the early hours of the morning today.

The students destroyed furniture in various classrooms, LCD television sets, air conditioners, cars, college buses and other equipment at the guesthouse and principal’s office. Two security guards also sustained injuries in the attack.

A meeting of the disciplinary committee will be held to take a decision on whether to lodge a complaint against the erring students and initiate disciplinary proceedings.

“All the second and third-year students have vacated the campus today. Two platoons of police force was deployed on the campus following the unrest and the situation is now under control,” said additional superintendent of police B.N. Das.

The violence erupted at 2am after the students and authorities failed to reach a consensus over change in college timings. Sources said the second and third year students were demanding for morning classes from 8am to 2pm. At present, classes are being held from 10.30 am to 5.10pm.

“Though we had reassured the students and even a notice was put up for conducting morning classes from Monday, the students did not listen to us,” said principal Amiya Kumar Rath.

Rath said the college management had assured the students of taking their demands into consideration as the decision could be taken only after a prior discussion with other faculty members, deans and guardians.

However, the entire process was time consuming as the timetable of all the diploma and degree students had to be rescheduled for the conduct of morning classes, Rath said.

Official sources said the guardians of third and second-year students had agreed to conduct classes till evening.