By Our Correspondent
Ilam, Aug. 4: B.Sc. Horticulture students of Mahendra Ratna Multiple Campus, Ilam, padlocked the campus administration building blaming that their future has become uncertain due to negligence of the campus administration.
The students, who have been protesting for about a month now, have locked the offices of the campus chief, assistant campus chief and head of the concerned department.
The students studying the courses of the Tribhuvan University blamed that their future had become uncertain as the Public Service Commission did not recognise the subject they were studying and they were not allowed to pursue postgraduate level.
"I came to study with the hope of ​​doing something based on agriculture, but now there is a problem after the authorities did not give validity to the courses," said Kishor Acharya, chairman of the agitating students' struggle committee.
Students are in agitation stating that the future of 230 students from across the country is uncertain. The campus introduced the courses in 2012. The campus has been teaching the course under Institute of Agriculture and Animal Sciences. However, the students are in crisis after the Public Service Commission decided not to accept the course taught in the campus.
The campus teaches horticulture, agricultural expansion, crop protection, crop science and soil science. Each student of the campus has to pay Rs. 555,000 to complete the course.
Surendra Bista, who came to Ilam from far-west Kailali to study horticulture, said he came to study horticulture for his better future in agriculture, however, his future looked uncertain even after completing the course.
Campus Chief Dr. Dilnath Phuyal said B. Sc. in Agriculture and B.Sc. in Horticulture are equal and even in competition. “Therefore it is unfair to disqualify the students of horticulture.
The campus has been taking repeated initiatives in coordination with Tribhuvan University to solve the problem,” he said.