Students of Central University of Orissa at Sunabeda in Koraput district walked till 5 km from the campus to reach the main road as they were asked to vacate the hostel & campus by 10.30 a.m. on Thursday following declaration of sine die by the vice chancellor of the university in the morning.
Prof Sachidananda Mahanty, vice-chancellor of the university, had declared sine die apprehending violence while students insisted that their protest was totally peaceful.
Students had come out of their hostels on Wednesday evening to press their demands which included many basic facilities like installing a photocopying machine, ATM etc apart from various needs in the hostels where more than 400 students were staying.
They complained about dearth in permanent faculty, corruption in purchases.Dr Mahanty told media persons the agitation was by a section of students with a criminal mind and under direction of certain external agents.
The students are being instigated by outside forces, he alleged. The closure of the varsity sine die is a painful decision he said but dropped adequate hints at the involvement of a few employees who had retired recently.
Out of the 60 demands there were some genuine concerns which could be termed as needs of the students and would be looked after by the university, but lawlessness will not be tolerated, said the Vice-Chancellor.