Engg students call off hunger strike
JAMSHEDPUR: The students of Government Engineering College (GEC), Chaibasa, called off their indefinite hunger strike on Wednesday evening after intervention from the West Singhbhum district administration.
The students had been agitating since July 3, demanding that their institute, which is under the Kolhan University, be identified by one name - the state government has changed the name of the colleges but it is yet to be approved by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE). Three other technical colleges face the same crisis - GEC Dumka under the Sido Kanhu University, GEC Ragmar under the Vinoba Bhave University and Government Polytechnic Silli under the State Board of Technical Education.
These colleges were earlier called Techno India Ramgarh, Chaibasa, Dumka and Silli. The state government changed their names in February 2014.
The Techno India group runs these colleges under the public private partnership (PPP) mode.
The issue of the name of the college came to light after an RTI query in May revealed that the AICTE still recognises the colleges as Techno India and name was not changed.
“Techno India has informed that they had applied to the AICTE in February last for name change but could not get it due to technical reasons. Only extension for the academic year 2016-2017 has been approved in the name of Techno India, Chaibasa,” a student said.
On Wednesday, the district administration called a meeting with the students, Kolhan University officials and Techno India management in Chaibasa.
The students were assured that the name of the college will be changed within three months.