Some teachers of IIM Calcutta have written to the director seeking to know why the institute was still open and academic activities such as classes and seminars were going on unhindered.

The state government has issued an advisory asking all educational institutes across Bengal to remain close till April 15 because of the Covid-19 outbreak.

A section of teachers of the Joka B-school has alleged that director Anju Seth has not paid any heed to the concerns flagged by them at a recent meeting, where they requested her to shut down the campus.

Before that the teachers had sent her a mail asking why the campus was still open and all academic activities were going on as usual.

A teacher said the Joka institute must take cognisance of the state advisory, which calls for social distancing. “We have been petitioning the director over the past several days to close the institute. Ever since the chief minister’s office had issued the advisory on Saturday, we have been requesting her to pay heed to it,” the teacher said.

Director Seth told Metro: “We are not in a complete lockdown mode.... We are continuously in touch with the state government and the central government if we are to understand anything about the advisories. It is true as the advisories keep changing, we also keep changing. We have to modify ourselves to keep pace with the advisories. We are following the letter of the law. We are doing what we have been asked to do. We bought a thermal scanner on Thursday.”

The teachers had also objected to the decision to display answer scripts on the campus on March 21 since that would entail an interaction between the students and the teachers.

Seth said the scripts would be displayed online.

“The director is now insisting on displaying the scripts online. But we are unsure whether that can be done at such short notice. Besides, some students have arrived because they were not notified about the change,” a teacher said.

When asked about alleged lack of preparations to hold the exercise online, Seth said: “It is entirely possible to hold the exercise online.” Will there be any bar on seminars? “It is left to the faculty members. But if there is a seminar they have follow safety precautions” she said.