Students urge Naveen to give university tag to CET – Times of India

CET students, alumni, educationists and student activists had joined the twitter campaign to show solidarity towards the cause. They had also submitted a memorandum to skill development and technical education minister Premananda Nayak on this issue last month.

CET students’ forum president Sattwik Patra said they face several problems because the college is being operational under the Biju Patnaik University of Technology (BPUT) even after getting autonomy. They face difficulties in receiving certificates timely, modification of courses according to the requirements, appointment of teachers in vacant posts, developing co-curricular activities and to build a better atmosphere to undertake research and development.

CET students have been demanding for unitary university status since 2013. They had staged a hunger strike way back in 2018 on this issue. Students’ Union of the college has vowed to call yet another indefinite hunger strike if no concrete decision is made within a span of a month, said Abhisek Pani, general secretary of CET Students’ Forum.

In August 2014, the state government had planned to accord university status to the CET, Bhubaneswar. It had even constituted an expert committee under the chairmanship of the then Veer Surendra Sai University of Technology vice-chancellor B K Nanda to give shapes to the proposals of upgrading the institute into unitary university on the lines of VSSUT.

A student activist said the university tag will ensure greater autonomy and freedom to the college, established in 1981. “Nobody pays heed to our demand, that’s why we wrote to the chief minister for intervention,” he added.

This government college has 14 engineering branches with an annual intake of nearly 1400 students. It has Centre of Microeconomics, Centre of Mechanics, Centre of Nanobiotechnology, Modrob project centre and Artificial Intelligence Lab.