The board of governors of Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology (IIEST), Shibpur, has reduced the mess fees only till March 31, 2022, because the institute is working on a plan to call students back to the campus in phases from November, a board member said.
If the students resume their stay in hostels, they have to pay the fees like they did in the pre-Covid times, he said.
Students had sought the relief because they are away from the campus and encountering financial hardships amid the pandemic.
At a meeting on August 25, the board had approved the proposal to reduce the mess establishment fees and overhead charges by over 25 per cent each till March 31 next year, as recommended by the finance committee of the IIEST.
The mess fees during the period will be reduced from Rs 5,000 to Rs 2,900 for fourth-year students and from Rs 6,200 to Rs 4,100 for third-year students.
Harshvardhan Singh, the secretary of the students’ senate, who wrote to IIEST director Parthasarathi Chakrabarti last month pleading for the reduction in fees, said they expected the revised fees to stay for the entire academic session as the institute has not said anything on reopening.
Repeated calls and text messages to the director from this newspaper were not answered.
A board member said that since the institute was working on a plan to recall the students – subject to the Covid situation remaining under control - they thought it prudent to allow the partial waiver till the end of the first quarter of next year.
“If the students arrive by then as part of the phased recalling, the reduction will be in force only till then. The Bengal government is working on a plan to reopen schools and colleges for in-person classes after the Puja in November. A residential campus like ours then will explore the possibility of reopening in a phased manner,” he said.
Another official said allowing the partial waiver for a longer period was not possible because the ministry of education had asked the institute and all NITs to cut down expenditure by 20 per cent.
