Over 8,000 students of Jamshedpur Cooperative College will suffer for the cause of democracy over the next two months as the main building of the Bistupur campus would be made a strongroom by the district administration for the Lok Sabha polls.

The college has four buildings — postgraduate, main, science block and BEd. While the main building will act as a strongroom from March 16, keeping EVMs and other poll items, the PG building will be gradually taken over for counting, East Singhbhum DC Amit Kumar told this paper on Thursday. He added that people would be barred from the main building once it was sealed as a strongroom.

EVMs for all polling booths of Jamshedpur Lok Sabha seat, comprising six Assembly segments, would be kept in the strongroom. Security and polling personnel, to camp near the strongroom, will take the machines to booths across the constituency and bring them back here after voting for the next step of the mammoth exercise, counting.

College principal V.K. Singh confirmed the main building would be converted into a strongroom. “We have told authorities of Kolhan University and Jharkhand Academic Council (as the college hosts intermediate classes too) about this development. The administration will take over the main building from March 16. We will get to know about their requirement of the PG building soon,” he said.

Students who did not want to be named said at one level they understood the need for the strongroom but at another were worried about their academic schedule.

“I don’t know if the college will arrange any class this poll season,” an undergraduate said. Another said, “Nearly six months of our studies will be affected this academic year. Once the district administration vacates the main building in May-end, we will have summer vacations till mid-June. Assembly polls are in November-December, when again our college building will be taken over for a strongroom.”

College student union president Kamal Agrawal said they understood the importance of elections and encourage every student to vote. “But, the academic schedule of our college suffers in an election year,” Agrawal said. “The administration should make some other arrangement for keeping EVMs and other poll items. The studies of over 8,000 students should not get affected like this. We will write to the Chief Election Commissioner in New Delhi to this effect after this Lok Sabha polls.”