Patna: Police on Friday locked up around 120 students of Birla Institute of Technology (BIT)-Patna in a conference room of the institute when they were agitating for course approval from the Council of Architecture and institute recognition from University Grants Commission (UGC).
The students alleged neither their course Bachelor of Architecture (BArch) nor the institute has approval from Council of Architecture (COA) and University Grants Commission (UGC) respectively.
A final-year BArch student, who was part of the protest, said: "We came to know through a Right to Information (RTI) application made to the UGC that BIT-Patna is not UGC approved." The RTI reply from the UGC mentions only BIT-Mesra (Ranchi) as approved.
The UGC letter dated September 6, 2017, and undersigned by UGC under secretary Kundla Mahajan reads: "The Government of India, Ministry of Human Resource Development department vide its notification dated 28/8/1986 declared the Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra, Ranchi as deemed to be university. The Deemed to be university can award degrees from its main campus in UGC approved courses in regular mode. The UGC has not granted any permission to BIT, Mesra, to establish off campus centres/study centres/franchisee centres."
Director of BIT-Patna B.K. Singh said: "We have called a meeting with students, their parents and university officials in the evening. The issue will be soon sorted."
