John Wilbert & Sarthak Kanjilal
Port Blair, March 01: The students of Dr. BR Ambedkar Institute of Technology staged a massive protest in front of the college premises today when their long pending demands, kept in front of the College Authorities, were not fulfilled even after a recent meeting that was concluded between the Principal of the college and the Students.
The B.Tech students of the DBRAIT alleged that they have been raising several serious issues comprising all quality oriented and genuine demands but no action has been taken by college authorities yet to resolve those issues.
“We have also written a letter to Principal dated 06/02/2018, against which we received no response, a meeting that was conducted recently with principal and other authorities was complete failure because none of our demands were accepted,” said an ABVP unit member of the college.
As per reports, filling of the vacant posts of regular professors and other non-teaching staff was one of the demands raised by the students. Secondly, the students demanded that Core subjects should be taught by regular faculty than being taught by under qualified and guest faculty.
Students also demanded to remove FGA, K&ST and TFGA subjects and give full emphasis on prescribed subjects of Pondicherry University syllabus.
Talking to Andaman Sheekha, the students also demanded that the project evaluation, topic selection and Project review is to be done by project guides and subject experts only but not by any unauthorized person, which was also not accepted by the College Administration.
Not only this, students also demanded the college administration to reduce the timing of the college so that they get time for self-study etc.
“The Principal, HODs and senior faculties of DBRAIT, in their closed chambers, are continuously suppressing our voice in the name of project marks, internals and attendance. They are pressurizing us to withdraw our signature and demands from the letter and compelling us to write an apology letter,” said another college student said on the condition of anonymity.
“Our parents are called on frequently basis, on public holidays also, by college administration to threaten us by making some fake and fictitious complaints and stories about us. Our poor parents are coming to the college by taking leaves from their offices and felt cheated and humiliated by college authorities. This behavior of college authorities is triggering unrest among B.Tech students,” said another student also a member of the ABVP unit of college.
Further talking to Andaman Sheekha, the protesting students said that the continuous torture and rude behaviour of Principal and HODs against their genuine demands was the main reason behind this peaceful mass protest. Later SDM of South Andaman reached the protest site and assured to
fulfill a few demands and also asked for one week time to look into
other demands after which the protest was called off.
