JAGATSINGHPUR: Protesting acquisition of college land for development projects by the district administration, students of SVM Autonomous College (SVMAC) along with alumni and other intellectuals conducted a meeting in front of its main gate and vowed to intensify the stir if their demands are not met.
In November last year, the State government had decided to record encroached adjacent land of various educational institutions under the Higher Education (HE) department. The institutions had to then apply to the government to gain legitimacy to use the same land. As per reports, SVMAC has 36 acres under its name which included 10 acres of encroached government land. As the college body has decided to expand the institution, it had applied to the HE department in 2021 for registration of the 10 acre land and also submitted various development proposals.
However, the district administration has reportedly violated the government decision and made an attempt to acquire the college’s encroached land by demolishing the boundary wall. Sources said, the president of governing body Kamala Prasad Mohapatra and college principal Niranjan Biswal had sought the intervention of the administration to stop the land acquisition but to no avail. Appeals of college authorities to the additional secretary of HE department, 5T secretary, principal secretary of Revenue and Disaster Management department and the district Collector too haven’t yielded results. Without any option, the students took the stir route.
In a press release, the administration had clarified that it was decided to widen the narrow road leading to proposed multipurpose indoor stadium at a cost of Rs 10 crore which will ultimately benefit students. A new boundary wall and main gate will be erected soon after demolition of the old wall. Collector Parul Patwari was, however, unavailable for comments.