Frontal outfits of the CPM in Nadia’s Kalyani have enlisted 150 homes of party workers to host examinees — and their guardians — arriving from faraway places to the university town for competitive exams, starting with JEE Advanced on September 27.

The CPM women’s wing, SFI, DYFI and Citu decided to take up the task after it was discovered that a large number of candidates in Bengal could not take the JEE Main over transport and accommodation problems.

The party has taken help of social media platforms to tell people about its initiative to offer accommodation to competitive exam aspirants.

“The problems that students faced during the JEE Main led us to conceive the plan. We want to be with the students who would reach Kalyani for JEE Advanced on September 27. Our initiative will address the problem of examinees, particularly those from financially weaker sections. Our initiative will continue till suburban train services resume and hotels are allowed to book guests to capacity,” said a CPM insider.

Sumit De, CPM’s Nadia district secretary, said they wanted students to appear in exams “without tension”.

CPM’s Kalyani area committee member Dibyendu Bhattacharya said they had identified 150 houses of party activists with extra rooms.

“In such houses, candidates and their guardians will be offered accommodation on twin-sharing basis. In case the number of candidates increases, we will enlist more homes. Students who find it difficult to return home immediately after exam will be allowed to stay back for the night,” he said.

On Covid protocol, he said thermal scanning and necessary sanitisation steps would be adopted before the students enter the homes. He added food would be provided to the guests by volunteers at a nominal price. Financially weaker students will get free food.

“We have formed a team of 50 volunteers consisting of members of the SFI, DYFI, Citu and the CPM women’s wing. They will be taking care of the students and guardians from a day ahead of the exam till the time they leave. A number of examinations will be held in the town in the coming months and if the pandemic continues we will continue with our service,” Bhattacharya, who is also Citu’s district committee member, said. “The party will arrange free transport at many points in the town for examinees.”

The Kalyani home of Abanti Goswami, a professor in economics at Surendranath College in Calcutta and a CPM sympathiser, is among the homes that will host students. “This is a much-needed initiative to help students in this pandemic so that they can appear in the tests without mental burden,” Goswami said.