The Regional Institute of Printing Technology, a polytechnic college adjacent to Jadavpur University, has not been able to recall its outstation students even as the institute has reopened for on-campus classes from early this month.
The hostel of the polytechnic college that has half of its seats reserved for students outside Bengal is on the Jadavpur University (JU) campus.
“As the university has not got permission from the state government to reopen hostels, the request for reopening the hostel of the polytechnic college could not be complied with,” said a JU official.
A concern over the absence of hands-on training, which is raising questions about the employability of students, prompted the state government to reopen 172 polytechnic colleges from September 1.
But the polytechnic college that is located right next to gate number 4 of JU, has not been able to recall students who come from the Union territory of Andaman and states like Manipur, Sikkim, Meghalaya, Assam, Nagaland, Arunachal, Tripura, Mizoram, Bihar, Odisha and Jharkhand as the hostel is not available for use.
In the printing discipline, out of the 55 seats, 27 seats are reserved for students from the other state.
In photography, out of 40 seats, 19 are reserved for students beyond Bengal.
Haroprosad Mondal, the officer-in-charge of the regional college, said they wrote to JU authorities early this month, seeking permission for the reopening of the hostel. “But the hostel has not yet been reopened. In absence of this, we cannot recall outstation students,” said Mondal.
JU registrar Snehamanju Basu said: “We have not allowed the reopening of the hostel”.
A JU official said until the state government allowed it, they could not reopen any hostel.
According to him if the hostel for the regional college was allowed to reopen, then they would come under pressure from its students for reopening of the university’s hostels on the campus and elsewhere.
“An effort is underway to disinfect and sanitise the hostels as part of the plan to prepare JU for reopening in anticipation of a possible reopening after Puja, subject to permission from the state government. Whenever we get permission to reopen our hostels, that of the regional college will be reopened,” he said.
A teacher of the college said, students from other states were petitioning the institute authorities for being recalled because practical classes could not be held online.
“Our course is more about hands-on training. Theory classes are also getting disrupted owing to connectivity woes,” he said.