Assam chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal inaugurated the first engineering college in Golaghat district at Bogorijeng, 5km from Golaghat town, on Tuesday.

Inaugurating the fifth technical college of Assam, Sonowal, who was the chief guest, said students of the college would be immensely benefited by the Numaligarh Refinery Ltd (NRL).

“The Centre has sanctioned funds to develop the NRL which has a production capacity of 9 million tonnes and there will be more job opportunities in the NRL in the near future. The students must face competition in this age of science and technology to establish themselves. The college will produce technically-fit youths for future,” he added.

He said another six engineering colleges would be set up in the state besides a university for the visually-challenged at Dibrugarh soon.

The college was constructed at a cost of Rs 50 crore on 30.85-bigha land.

Education minister Siddhartha Bhattacharya said now the students would no longer have to go outside the state for engineering courses and urged the college authorities to make its compound full of greenery. Golaghat MLA and former minister Ajanta Neog delivered the welcome address.

In a press release issued on Tuesday, the district unit of AASU termed the inauguration of the college “a part of political agenda only” as the academic session started last year on August 20 with 92 students in chemical, mechanical and civil engineering courses.

The students’ union alleged that the results of the first semester were declared without permission of the All India Council of Technical Education.

The secretary of Golaghat district of AASU, Prince Doley, said the college was being run with a temporary principal, 10 guest teachers, an instructor from Jorhat-based Prince of Wales Polytechnic, an employee from Golaghat Residential Girls’ Polytechnic along with 24 other temporary employees appointed by an outsourcing company.

Doley said the government should appoint adequate teachers in permanent posts for academic excellence.

“The government plays an indifferent role to develop the existing two polytechnic institutes at Golaghat and Furkating. We demand immediate development of the institutes,” Doley said.

Earlier, Sonowal was shown black flags and black balloons in protest against the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2019. However, he landed at the helipad set up near the stage of the meeting.