IIEST has told second-year students that they will be accommodated in makeshift hostels that lack network-dining-drinking water facilities as the institute could not repair the actual hostels on time.
Officials of the Shibpur institute said the hostels lacking the facilities were staff quarters that had been converted into temporary accommodation for students.
A notice uploaded on the hostel management council’s portal by the institute’s chief warden says: “Only cots will be available in the hostel. No other furniture will be given now. No network connection will be available there in the hostel now. Drinking water has to be collected from nearby hostels/nearby drinking water supply points within the institute campus”.
“There is no dining facility in these types of accommodations. They have to go to nearby hostels for taking food,” says the notice, addressed to 60 BTech second-year students whose homes are 120-215km from the campus.
Around 100 second-year students whose homes are more than 215km from the campus have been provided hostel accommodation on the campus. A section of students from other batches, too, has been accommodated in hostels.
The notice says “students should apply (for hostel accommodation) keeping these (factors) in their mind” and no complaints regarding lack of these facilities will be entertained once they start staying in such hostels.
“As some of the hostels are in a state of disrepair, the institute has converted some staff quarters into hostel rooms. The quarters lack the basic facilities,” an IIEST official said.
The notice, issued by chief warden Sudipta Mukhopadhayay, says: “These types of accommodations for students were created for the first time”.
“As the number of students has increased, we have created a makeshift arrangement. The facilities like furniture, connectivity, drinking water and dining facilities will be set up soon. Till then, students will have to make arrangements as explained in the notice,” Mukhopadhayay, who is also dean of students, told The Telegraph.
The authorities are bringing students to the campus in phases as they are getting ready to hold the end-semester exams on the campus and start in-person classes in May.
“We have been told that the end-semester exams will be held offline in early May. So students are being called. But does that mean students have to live in such conditions?” said a second-year student. “Why did not they renovate the hostels in the two years the campus was closed for in-person classes because of Covid?”
The 60 second-year students have been asked to pay hostel dues (Rs 4,000) and mess dues (Rs 18,000) by April 20.
“They are forcing students to live in such inhospitable conditions and asking them to clear hostel and mess dues. This is grossly unfair,” said another second-year student.