Udupi: Students of polytechnics staged a dharna near the Eshwar Nagar Bus Stand here on Wednesday seeking the fulfilment of their two major demands — free bus passes and seeking a full carry-over system.

Dinakar Shetty, secretary of All College Students Union, said that there should be a full carry-over system benefiting the students. At present, the students could go on to the next semester even if they did not pass in four subjects. But the students should be allowed to go to the next semester even if they failed in more than four subjects.

The present system in the polytechnic stream was not beneficial to students and this was resulting in fewer number of students joining polytechnic courses with every passing year. The number of students joining the polytechnic stream had come down by nearly 9,000 in the last one year, he said.

The government had withdrawn bus pass facility in the State, which was a wrong move. This would affect a large number of students, who were poor and came from rural areas. They would hence forth have to spend more money. This would also affect their studies, he said.

Students from Dr. T.M.A. Pai Polytechnic, Government Polytechnic and I.R.S.R. Polytechnic took part in the dharna.

Raghuveer S., Suraj Indrali, Ranjan, Abhiraj, leaders, were present.