Students of the Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology (MANIT) and the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) here are protesting against their institutions’ hostels being converted into quarantine centres during the COVID-19 pandemic, fearing loss of belongings and a blow to academics and placements.
The Bhopal district administration towards May-end acquired seven of the nine hostels at the MANIT and two of the seven at the IISER, using powers conferred by COVID-19 regulations under the Epidemic Disease Act, 1857.
Both the Central institutions had to break padlocks, empty rooms and move belongings of hundreds of students elsewhere, even as they remained away at home across the country with the academic session stalled in view of the lockdown.
“When the lockdown was declared, we left in a hurry carrying with us only a few items,” said a third-year engineering student at MANIT, requesting anonymity. “So our laptops, certificates and bike keys were all left behind. The institute hasn’t given us an assurance that they will keep them safe.”
Further, the student feared academics and job placements would be affected too. “We don’t know for how long the pandemic will last and our institute will continue to be a quarantine centre,” he said.
Hundreds of students have taken to Twitter to demand the suspension of the takeover.
‘Exempt us’
MANIT Dean, Students Welfare, J.L. Bhagoria said the institute had appealed to the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development to exempt it from being made into a quarantine centre. “We can’t deny any order of the government, but moving belongings of around 5,000 students is a task. Hostel wardens have kept the belongings safe inside almirahs, “ he said.
