Bhubaneswar, Dec. 8 -- Students of Gopabandhu Ayurvedic College in Puri launched an indefinite hunger strike on Monday, escalating their ongoing protest over an eight-point charter of demands that they claim has been ignored for years. The agitation, which began nearly a month ago, has included black-badge demonstrations, night-long sit-ins and symbolic gestures such as mailing white aprons to the Odisha Health Minister Mukesh Mahaling through thePuri Post Office.

With no progress on their demands, students reportedly locked one section of the college and staged a dharna at the main gate. Despite the intensified protest, they continued treating patients at the hospital, reiterating that their agitation is not intended to disrupt healthca...