Siliguri, March 19: Third-year students of Siliguri Institute of Technology (SIT) today launched an indefinite hunger strike demanding that recruitment process be conducted on the campus.

The practice of the Techno India Group, which opened the first private engineering college in north Bengal, is to send the students to the Central Placement Cell, Calcutta.

“We went to the principal and other authorities with the demand but they greeted us with nonchalance, forcing us to go on an indefinite strike,” said one of the students.

“The institution does not reimburse our travel or accommodation expenses,” said another third-year student. “There is no surety as to how many times one may have to make trips to Calcutta. What often happens is that when we are just back from an interview, we are told to rush to Calcutta again for a meeting with another company. Not all students can afford to meet such expenses and cope with the uncertainties. And girls are the worst sufferers,” he added.

The student has already made it to an IT company but has joined the strike “to fight for a cause”.

The protesters alleged that the SIT students were discriminated against the Group’s other colleges in Calcutta. Central Cell, set up for the group’s all colleges, always gives preferential treatment to the students from south Bengal. We are the last ones to be called for interviews. The result is that students from other colleges land up with better jobs,” said a student.

They wanted to know why the college did not try to bring to the campus those companies which come to other engineering colleges in the region. They added that the college did not have a placement officer for the past one year.

T.K. Chatterjee, the director of Techno India Group, said it was not easy to coax major companies into coming to north Bengal. “We cannot expect them to come here. One-third of the students have already been placed in different companies. We hope the rest, too, will be placed soon.”

Principal S Dasgupta said strike would not be a solution to problems. According to him, if students go in for agitation, companies will turn their back. “I hope better sense will prevail on the students and they will withdraw the strike so that the institute can function smoothly.”