Report by OD bureau; Bhubaneswar: All India Democratic Students’ Organisation (AIDSO) organised a demonstration before the state secretariat of Odisha in demand of manual admission in colleges of Odisha, declaring e-admission as optional like other e-processes viz. e-booking & e-banking, limiting application fee for admission to Rs. 50/-, sending intimation letter by post and allowing colleges to conduct selection at the college level.

Hundreds of students led by AIDSO Odisha sate president Akshay Das, Vice-presidents Subash Nayak & Ganesh Tripathy, Secretary Shibasis Praharaj, secretariat membersKedarnathSahoo, SidharthRath, BabiBalabantaray, ParamanandaSahoo, JayantaMohanty, DebajaniDehury&NasimSarkar march through the streets of Bhubaneswar and demonstrated in front of the secretariat. A delegation team submitted a memorandum to the Higher education minister on above demands. The speakers in the protest meeting said that as e-admission being compulsory is coercive, discriminatory and arbitrary. Secondly it neither meets any of its stated objectives nor does it confirm to the general principles of good governance.

Thirdly the majority of the students stand on one side of the digital divide, with easy accessibility and opportunity available only to a miniscule few. Fourthly as e-admission being compulsory pushes majority of the students to an alien ambience, make them feel inadequate, insecure and harassed. Fifthly e-admission violates the principle of decentralization having denied the individual college to conduct its own admission process albeit within a broad framework prescribed by the Council or University.

Lastly e-admission has finally failed since manual admission is ultimately resorted to fill up the vacant seats. Hence AIDSO has been continually developing students’ movement on above demands. AIDSO urged upon the students, teachers, guardians, intellectuals and education loving people of the state to strengthen the movement.