Sittwe: Over 300 students from the Government Technical College in western Burma's Arakan State staged a demonstration on Monday by marching on the streets after school taxis failed to pick up students at the college, a student said.

"We assembled in front of the Rakhine State Peace and Development Council’s office gate and staged the demonstration after school taxis failed to take us from the school to our homes. Later authorities from the university came and promised to solve the problem immediately, so we called off our demonstration," he said.

The Government Technical College is located on the outskirts of Sittwe, 10 miles downtown. Students have to travel to and from schools in private taxis.

The demonstration was started by students at 3 pm when they usually return home after school in taxis, and was called off at 9:30 pm.

"The school taxis could not come to our school yesterday to pick us up because the fuel supply for the taxis was stopped by the authorities. Even though some taxis came to our school, they demanded 100 Kyat more than the normal fee of 200 Kyat. Then the demonstration began at our college and we marched on the streets," the student added.

The government recently transferred the business of supplying fuel to the privately-owned Htoo Company, led by business tycoon Teza. The Htoo Company has been unable to supply fuel to the taxis like earlier and the taxis subsequently stopped serving the college due to lack of profit.

According to student sources, the college authorities have been in discussions with local higher authorities in Arakan State to solve the problem since the demonstration, but so far no decision has been arrived at.

"We will continue to stage the demonstration if the taxis are still absent and demand more fare from us. We have to learn about the college authorities' decision today about the problem with the school taxis," the student said.

Two years ago there were similar student demonstrations after the taxis raised their fares, but the taxi drivers later cut the fares after the government intervened.