Chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee has sought the Prime Minister’s intervention to resolve the impasse at Bengal Engineering and Science University (Besu) triggered by the teachers’ agitation over proposed upgrade of the Shibpur campus.

Academic activities at the university were paralysed on Friday, as the students decided to join the teachers’ movement and stayed away from class.

Bhattacharjee has urged Manmohan Singh to convey to the state government the Centre’s approval for Besu’s upgrade to Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology (IIEST) status, at the earliest.

“The university is in the midst of celebrating its 150th year. The teachers, students and alumni will feel encouraged if the approval of the Centre is communicated and the required funds are released while the sesquicentennial celebrations are on,” Bhattacharjee wrote in a letter to the Prime Minister on Thursday.

Higher education minister Sudarshan Ray Chaudhuri on Friday appealed to a delegation of Besu teachers to withdraw their indefinite hunger strike to protest the “complete lack of communication from the central and state governments over the upgrade issue”.

The teachers have been on a relay hunger strike since Tuesday.

“The state government has written four letters to the Centre since November, conveying its in-principle acceptance of the proposal for the upgrade of Besu to the status of IIEST. We are awaiting a positive response to the chief minister’s letter,” said Ray Chaudhuri.

Vice-chancellor Nikhil Ranjan Banerjea has also written to human resource development minister Arjun Singh, describing the crisis on campus.