Bhubaneswar: Exams scheduled for Monday in Orissa universities have been postponed in view of the nationwide shutdown called by political parties to protest the hike in fuel prices, officials said on Saturday.

The Biju Patnaik University of Technology and the Utkal University postponed their exams after several political parties called for a strike earlier this week, marking the first unified showdown since the Congress returned to power last year.

The Biju Patnaik University of Technology has rescheduled its fourth semester exams of various engineering courses to July 10, university Registrar A.N. Acharya told the sources.

An official of Utkal University said the new dates for the examinations would be announced soon.

All the universities were to conduct exams of 19 courses on Monday.

"The universities have postponed the examinations on their own. We have not issued any order," Anirudha Rout, special secretary of the state's higher education department, told the sources.

In Orissa, opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) and its allies are participating in the protest.

Apart from the exams being rescheduled, rail and road services are expected to be hit and schools and colleges would be closed.

Last week, the central government ended government curbs on petroleum pricing and hiked the prices of diesel, kerosene and cooking gas.

The price of diesel went up by Rs.2 a litre, kerosene by Rs.3 a litre, petrol by Rs.3.50 a litre, and cooking gas by Rs.35 per cylinder. IANS