A section of students of the Ghani Khan Choudhury Institute of Engineering & Technology (GKCIET) in Malda resorted to protests on Monday, alleging that they did not get admit cards for their BTech semester exams even a day before the exam schedule.

The BTech econd, fourth, sixth and eighth semester exams are set to start on Tuesday. Around 350 students of the food technology, civil, mechanical, electrical and computer science engineering will appear in the exams of different semesters.

However, 37 examinees, mostly from the mechanical and the civil engineering streams, did not get their admit cards till Monday evening.

In the morning, students launched a sit-in demonstration in front of the district magistrate’s office. In the evening, they started a hunger strike.

According to them, they were victims of a “technical fault” and they would face problems in the future if they did not get admit cards as they had already got placements from different private companies.

The GKCIET authorities, when contacted, cited some reasons that they said led to the situation.

Kshirod Kumar Dash, the dean (academics) of the GKCIET, said that according to the information they received from the departments, these students had lower attendance than the stipulated percentage.

The institute is affiliated with the Maulana Abul Kalam Azad University of Technology (MAKAUT) of the state.

“We tried to work out the issue. But by that time, the time to submit forms of those students was over. Additionally, there were some technical glitches in uploading their forms from our end. We are still trying to resolve the issue and are in touch with the MAKAUT authorities,” he said.

The students, however, denied buying this explanation.

“The fault is not ours. Why should we suffer from technical glitches and other issues? Initially, 102 students were identified as having inadequate attendance. Later, forms of 65 such students were cleared. We, the remaining students, are now reeling under acute uncertainty and have thus resorted to protests,” said Sudipta Bhattacharya, a student of the mechanical engineering department.

Some teachers of the institution sympathised with the students.

“Unfortunately, some students in the eighth semester in the mechanical engineering department are victims of the situation. They already got job offers (placements), and if they do not clear their semesters, they would lose the entire year and their jobs,” said a faculty member of GKCIET.

Officials of the district administration said they had received a written appeal from the agitating students.

“We are looking into the matter and exploring options so that the issue can be resolved,” an official said.