A visually-impaired student of Raiganj University has to travel 90km to and from home every day and sometimes misses her classes for want of assistance for the journey after the authorities refused to admit her to the girls’ hostel at the varsity.

Banhisikha Bhattacharya, the hostel superintendent, had rejected Sunita Roy’s application for admission, saying there were venomous snakes at the accommodation. Sunita is a first-year undergraduate student of English honours.

She is a resident of Sabdhan village in Lahtara 1 panchayat of Karandighi block in North Dinajpur. The village and the university are 45km apart. The girl had secured 78 per cent marks in the higher secondary exam last year.

“In September last year, I applied for accommodation at the girls’ hostel. However, the hostel superintendent didn’t approve my application and said the facility did not have the infrastructure to keep visually-impaired students. I again approached the hostel superintendent today (Friday), seeking hostel accommodation. She has told me that there are poisonous snakes at the hostel and hence, I can’t stay there,” said Sunita.

According to the student, she has to walk 1km from the residence to reach the bus stop. From there, she takes a bus and reaches the varsity. “My younger sister used to accompany me to the varsity. But as her exams are ahead, I had to manage it all myself. On most days, I am missing classes,” the girl said.

Sunita met vice-chancellor Sanchari Roy Mukherjee on Friday and sought her intervention. As the issue surfaced on Friday, a number of faculty members like Debasish Biswas, Amit Mandal and Abdul Sahadat came forward to support Sunita. Mukta Dutta Gupta, the district coordinator of inclusive education of Siksha Mission in the district education department, and Kousik Das, a special educator of the department, stood by Sunita.

“It is disappointing that a visually-impaired student has not been provided with accommodation at the hostel. We can’t make any move which disrupts a student’s study, as is happening here. We have met the vice-chancellor and the registrar and requested them to take proper steps,” said Dutta Gupta.

VC Roy Mukherjee was brief in her reaction. “I learnt about the issue today and will look into it,” she said. Sources said Banhisikha Bhattacharya had written to the registrar on March 1, saying the hostel had poisonous snakes and the superintendent wouldn’t take responsibility if Sunita was allotted the accommodation.

“It is surprising that the superintendent has never mentioned these issues at the meetings of the hostel monitoring committee,” said a source at the varsity. However, Bhattacharya said no visually-impaired student had met her with a plea for hostel accommodation.

Karandighi Trinamul Congress MLA Gautam Pal said if required, funds would be given for the improvement of infrastructure at the girl’s hostel.

“It is unfortunate that a visually-impaired girl is facing uncertainty in her studies because of the university authorities’ nonchalant attitude. I will send a letter to the VC to create appropriate infrastructure at the hostel and if required, I will release money from my MLA local area development funds,” said Pal.