Bhubaneswar: Tension prevailed on Utkal University campus Tuesday after irate students locked the main gate, demanding immediate restoration of power supply.
Sources said the students had earlier urged the varsity authorities to take immediate steps to restore power and water supply to the gents and ladies hostels. Though water supply resumed after a week, the campus is still without power, 12 days after the cyclonic storm Fani ravaged the Capital city.
The students of city colleges and universities are also facing water and electricity problems.
All Utkal University departments and hostels were damaged in the cyclone. University hostels like Gopabandhu, Madhusdhan, Fakir Mohan and others still have no power and water.
The entire varsity campus is covered with fallen trees which are blocking roads. Students have to go to nearby hand-pumps to collect water.
Sanjay Patnaik, a political science student and an inmate of Madhusudhan Hostel, said: “Since May 3 we have no water and electricity. The rooms of our hostel were damaged because of cyclone and since then we are stuck here. The varsity authorities had asked the students to leave the hostel and go home but some of the students are still staying because of other work.”
Prateek Jena, another student, said: “The varsity has been providing meals for the last few days but the Vice-Chancellor had asked them to go home as the situation is not suitable for studies and nobody knows when the situation will be back to normal.”
The agitating students said while students group, NDRF and the ODRAF teams have cleared the uprooted trees from the road and repaired electric poles, power is yet to be restored. “We will continue the agitation till power is restored,” they said.
However, varsity officials said that as the college is closed for summer holidays, there can’t be any restoration but once the college reopens, the power supply will be resumed.
Meanwhile, student groups from Delhi, Telangana, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh had joined the local students group in the cleaning of colleges and university Tuesday.