The Central University of Odisha Closed Indefinitely Fearing Students’ Agitation

The Central University of Odisha was closed sine die on Thursday following the protests of students that was underway in the campus. The protesting students were demanding fulfilment of their 60-point charter. Vice Chancellor Sachidananda Mohanty ordered to close the campus indefinitely due to “the grave prevailing situation in the campus”.

“The students were out of control and there were chances of violence, so we had to declare sine die to maintain discipline on the campus,” Mohanty told Odisha TV. The notification which was issued by the Joint Registrar K.V. Uma M Rao also asked the students to vacate hostels and campus before10 AM on March 15.

The students have been protesting in the main campus of the university at Koraput campus demanding the fulfilment of their 60-point charter of demands. The main demands include appointment of permanent faculties, 24/7 health care facilities in the campus, hostel facilities for research scholars and shifting of the main administrative office from Landiguda to its main campus.

The other demands in the 60-point charter included 24-hour water supply in hostels, free Wi-fi, installation of an ATM, the availability of photocopy facilities in the hostels, setting up more departments among others. So far, the university, which was set up by the Parliament Act 2009, has only 14 departments under seven schools.

"Since long, we have been demanding to fulfil our demands, but in vain. Hence, we resorted to dharna on Wednesday evening," a varsity student was quoted as saying.

"In a democratic way, we are staging the protest to fulfil our demands. During the protest, we have neither used any abusive language nor have we caused any damage to the varsity property. The reason behind declaring sine die is best known to the vice-chancellor, and we will lawfully accept it," he added.