Hundreds of students studying Agriculture Engineering courses, who were part of an indefinite hunger strike on the campus of the University of Agricultural Sciences, Raichur, demanding 40 % quota in recruitment under the Agriculture Department, took to the streets here on Thursday against the State government’s insensitive attitude in resolving their problem.
The protesters, most of them girls, expressed anguish over the government’s insensitivity in resolving the problem, though they were on hunger strike for the last 10 days and staging a sit-in dharna for the last 23 days concurrently.
A large number of students were part of a rally taken out from the campus to the Deputy Commissioner’s Office, where they submitted a memorandum addressed to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah.
Pointing out the alleged discrimination against candidates who have passed engineering courses, the protesters said that the State government had published notification announcing recruitment for 602 posts, making ineligible agriculture engineering students to apply for the posts. Therefore, they commenced the sit-in dharna against the government’s step-motherly attitude and then launched the hunger strike.
They said that the State government should issue a fresh notification allowing engineering students to apply for technical posts and ensure job opportunities to them.
If the government failed to fulfil their demand, they would block the main road outside the university, they said and added that the government should be held responsible for any untoward incidents.
Shivayogi, Veena, Mallika, Mahadevi, Sushma, Ambaresh, Vinay, Bipin and others were present.
