Students lock college gate

April 10: The students of Jalpaiguri Government Engineering College today locked the main entrance to the campus after the authorities allegedly failed to look into their demands of filling up vacant posts of teachers and upgrading infrastructure. The demonstration was launched by the apolitical students’ union of the college. The college principal, J. Jhampati, teachers and non-teaching staff members were forced to stand under trees for hours. It also led to the suspension of classes throughout the day. The college, considered as the top engineering college in north Bengal, has been facing a shortage of faculty and non-teaching staff for the past few months. It had affected the students, who were further disappointed by the poor technical infrastructure required for studying specialised engineering courses. From April 7, second-year students of the mechanical engineering department had been resorting to protests and demonstrations on the issues. “In total, 54 per cent of faculty posts are lying vacant. Further, there are only 52 fourth-grade employees and the number of total vacancies are 107. In mechanical department, there are only eight of 21 faculties, while computer science and electrical engineering departments have 13 vacant posts each,” said Mayukha Bhattacharya, the general secretary of the students’ union. “Last year, around 85 per cent of the students who passed out got jobs through campus interviews conducted by companies. However, the percentage came down to 29 per cent this year,” he said. “We will continue our agitation unless a written assurance reaches us from the state technical education department,” he added. Jhampati admitted that the demands of the students to fill up the vacancies and provide them with adequate infrastructure were correct. “We have been facing this problem for the past few years but in the recent months, it has become acute. Officials in the state education department have been apprised of the issues several times and unless there is any instruction from them, we can’t do anything,” the principal said.