With their careers at stake, students from the Dr BR Ambedkar Institute of Technology (DBRAIT) in Port Blair, Andaman and Nicobar Islands have been on a path of agitation since August 2022. The students have raised several concerns but the primary issue is the institute’s refusal to meet the 17 conditions put forth by the Pondicherry University to get affiliation for BTech courses. Since the institute did not fulfil the conditions, the conditional affiliation from Pondicherry University has been cancelled and students are unable to appear for exams.
Dr BR Ambedkar Government Polytechnic was set up in 1984. A second Government Polytechnic was established in 1989 in the same campus. Utpal Sharma was appointed as the principal of the Polytechnic in 1996 and has been in the post since then. In 2010, both the polytechnics were merged and renamed as Dr BR Ambedkar Institute of Technology and began offering full-time engineering degrees along with diploma courses.
An audit report submitted by the Indian Accounts and Audit Department earlier this year said that the upgradation of Dr Utpal Sharma’s post from principal of polytechnic to the principal of DBRAIT “violated the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) norms” as he did not possess the necessary qualifications. The norms state that the position for the principal must be created and the position must be contractual for a period of five years. None of these conditions were fulfilled when Utpal Sharma became the principal of DBRAIT.
Several other norms set by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) and Pondicherry University were also not followed by the institute. Pondicherry University has been directing the Andaman and Nicobar administration to appoint a new principal for the past 10 years but that has not been done. The University has also been asking the island’s administration to appoint well qualified professors and associate professors for the full time degrees but that has not been done either. Apart from these violations, there were also several deficiencies pointed out in the lab equipment, library books, journals, and sports facilities.
DBRAIT has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Maharashtra State Board of Technical Education (MSBTE) where the latter would provide support to the former in terms of curriculum design, development, implementation, monitoring and evaluation for the diploma programmes. However, MSBTE does not have jurisdiction outside the state of Maharashtra, terming the MoU invalid. The audit report stated that the Institute did not explain the reasons behind the MoU and had only furnished the said MoU.
In light of these violations and its disaffiliation from Pondicherry University, students have been protesting against the management since August 2022. Speaking to TNM, Rama Rao, a student from the Institute said: “Lateral entries to full time degrees after completing diplomas are not possible now since the Institute is disaffiliated from Pondicherry University. We are unable to give our exams because of the same. Pondicherry University questioned the quality of infrastructure of the college and the principal’s qualifications but they were not satisfied with the response. The college has not fulfilled all the 17 norms put forward by the University so it was disaffiliated. We can blame each other but students are the ones who are suffering, at the end of the day.”
Another third year student, Anmol, spoke to TNM and said, “We do not blame Pondicherry University. They had given a list of norms, the college did not fulfil them and it was disaffiliated. They were just doing their job. After all, DBRAIT was given only conditional affiliation by the University on the condition that these norms will be fulfilled. There are a lot of issues here. Our demands are straightforward. We want the management to appoint two different principals for the diploma and degree courses and the college to fulfil the norms put forth by Pondicherry University so that students can take their exams and get their degrees.”