On Tuesday, the students of GB Pant College began a hunger strike demanding the inclusion of the institute in the admission counseling after it was dropped by Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University from the list.
The protesting students have sept the night over there since the protest started on Monday outside Vikas Sadan. The students have claimed that they will not call off the strike until the order is revoked.
Vijay Goel, former Delhi BJP President, also visited the protesting students. Harish Khurrana, BJP spokesperson, ABVP secretary Siddharth Yadav, DUSU President Akshit Dahiya also accompanied him.
One of the students on hunger strike said that five of them are sitting on a hunger strike while other students will continue with the protest. They will not move from there till their demands are met. The decision-makers cannot play with the future of the students by taking a decision overnight.
Last year in March, the Delhi cabinet had approved the construction of an integrated campus of GB Pant Engineering College (GBPEC) and Polytechnic at Okhla Industrial Estate at an estimated cost of over Rs 520 crore.
There has been no official word, however, on the non-inclusion of the college in the counseling process for admission, other than indications of the institute being merged with the Delhi Skills University that is yet to be published.
Goel said that the IP University officials have accepted that GBPEC is no more in the list of its affiliated colleges and also accepted that there will be no admission in the first year of this academic year. This decision will have its impact on the third-year students also as there might not be any campus placements because no company would want to hire students from a college that is shutting down.
He also said that the Kejriwal government is now shutting their engineering college even though they had promised to open 20 new degree colleges.
Goel, who is also a former Union Minister said that it proves that higher education is not a priority for the Delhi government.
MANISH SISODIA: GB PANT COLLEGE WILL UNDERGO MAJOR MODIFICATION
He added that it is still not clear as to what will happen to the students of the second, third, and fourth year, whether they will qualify with NSIT or not. But certainly, one thing is clear that the decision to close down the college was taken slowly, hence no admission in the first year of this academic year.
