Students of private engineering colleges are on the warpath with the authorities over academic demands.

Nearly 4,000 students of 105 private engineering colleges and management institutions demonstrated on Monday in front of the Salt Lake office of the West Bengal University of Technology (WBUT), to which the institutions are affiliated, to press their demands.

Later, a delegation led by the state committee members of the Students’ Federation of India (SFI), the CPM’s students’ wing, met WBUT vice chancellor Ashoke Ranjan Thakur and submitted a charter of demands.

One of the demands is the abolition of a ban on home centres, imposed recently. The students have been taking tests in their own colleges since the private engineering colleges were set up in the state 10 years ago.

The students also want action to be taken against colleges that do not have adequate infrastructure and sufficient teachers, inclusion of students’ representatives in the university’s policy-making bodies and permission to form unions.

The university had last week decided to do away with the system of home centres for first and second-year students from the semester examinations starting on June 6.

“There is no reason for the students to oppose the move. They need to prepare well for appearing in an examination. Where they are asked to write the tests should be of no concern to them,” said Thakur.

The WBUT authorities had discussed the ban on home centres with the principals of the private engineering colleges. The move is aimed at making the examination system transparent.

Following the demand by the students, the WBUT authorities have called an emergency meeting of the executive council on May 12 to decide whether the ban could be imposed after the semester examinations.

The students have claimed that there are many flaws in the new examination system. For instance, they pointed out, the colleges that do not have another WBUT institution within 20 km will continue to allot home centres. This was “unfair”, according to the students.

“We welcome the move to do away with the system of home centres. But there are defects in the system that has been planned by the WBUT. We will allow the authorities to implement the system only after they remove these flaws. The university should ensure that engineering students are not allotted seats in management colleges,” said the SFI state committee president Sudip Sengupta.

On the students’ complaint of lack of infrastructure and teachers, the vice-chancellor said that the university has an inspection department to ensure facilities are on a par at affiliated colleges.

“We have asked the students to prepare a detailed, college-wise report stating their grievances. Necessary action will be taken against the colleges if the students’ allegations are found to be true,” stated Thakur.