ROURKELA: Even as the agitation by a small group of students of Indian Institute for Production Management (IIPM) at Mandiakudar near Rourkela entered its fifth day on Saturday, the institute’s management described it as motivated.
The agitating students, who are on a relay hunger strike, have been demanding removal of the institute’s director Prof Niranjan Nayak and constitution of new Governing Body (GB) with members of promoting companies. The students of IIPM, an institution promoted by ICICI Bank, L&T, SAIL and State Government, had blocked State Highway 10 briefly on September 11 and from the next day, started a relay hunger strike over their demands.
Incidentally, on August 7, Director of Higher Education Department, Odisha, D K Patnaik, following an inquiry, had superseded the earlier 15-member GB citing serious conflict of opinion among president, secretary and members and multiple charges of mismanagement in the affairs of the institute. Patnaik, in an order, appointed Rajgangpur legislator Mangla Kishan as one-man GB to look into the affairs of the institute till further orders or constitution of the new GB.
Prof Nayak said a few faculty members and non-teaching staff with vested interests have instigated some gullible students and the agitation is motivated. He said hardly two dozen local students are staging agitation. The institute has a strength of 550, including 350 tribal students, and they are serious about their studies, he added.