The Agriculture and Veterinary Colleges of Odisha University of Agriculture and Technology will remain closed till the elections are over in Bhubaneswar. The semester examinations, though, will not be postponed.
Both the colleges were on Wednesday closed sine die due to student unrest on the campus since last Friday and boarders asked to vacate the hostels.
Vice-Chancellor of the University Manoranjan Kar said as police personnel are being deployed on election duty, there are not many personnel left to even man the campus in wake of the ongoing students’ unrest. “We cannot take chances if there is another clash on the campus in the absence of police. Though we have already started receiving request letters from parents seeking reopening of the colleges, we have decided not to reopen till the elections are over,” he said.
The VC will hold an emergency meeting with the academic council members and peace committees of both the colleges on Friday to decide on reopening and semester examination dates.
Problem started last week when a first year student of Agriculture College had an argument with a PG student of Veterinary College over xeroxing of a document at a shop outside the campus.
A day later, warring student groups pelted glass bottles at each other inside the campus.
A similar clash was witnessed in 2010 when two groups of students fought a pitched battle leading to arrest of 40 of them.