SB Women’s College students on agitation path again

Bhubaneswar: Students of Sailabala (SB) Women’s College renewed their agitation on Monday over university status for the institute. They locked the college and sat in front of the gate, demanding that the new status be immediately provided by the govt.The agitation started after a meeting with the local collector over the issue. Collector Dattatraya Bhausaheb Shinde assured the students that he would meet them over the demand at the college on Monday morning. However, he could not do so and requested the students to come to his office in the afternoon. “The collector was supposed to come to our college today and discuss the issue with us. But he texted us to come to his office for discussion at 4.30 pm. We will not move from this place; the collector and his officials have to come here. We will not move from here till our demand is met,” a student said.MLA Sofia Firdaus said it was sad that the govt had not yet realised the importance of upgrading the college into a university. She also demanded that the govt provide 50 acres of land to the college for its future infrastructural growth.On Sunday, higher education minister Suryabanshi Suraj said that the govt was aware of the college’s demand and was examining it. “It is a heritage educational institution and deserves university status. We, however, will not upgrade any college as a university without it having adequate manpower or other resources to operate it, like the previous govt did during its tenure. Our govt is looking into developing the infrastructure of SB College,” he said.The minister further said that the National Education Policy-2020 called for the establishment of a university in every district, but the priority of the state govt was to open universities in areas where there were no govt higher educational institutions.On Saturday, the students sat on dharna over the issue for 12 hours.