Assam Engineering College hostels to be quarantine centers, boarders asked to vacate

Guwahati: Amid a rush of incoming citizens, the Assam Government has decided to use hostels of the Assam Engineering College as quarantine centers and boarders have been asked to vacate the premises by May 30 next.

The boarders have been asked to collect their belongings on or before May 30. "The boarders are advised to prioritise their collection of books, lecture notes or dcuments which will help in their online examinations, organized soon, without loss of their academic semester or year", read a communique sent out from the office of the Principal, Dr. Atul Bora.

Bora further informed that the boarders who cannot manage to collect their belongings from the respective hostels on or before May 30 shall inform their respective superintendents about their inability and the hostel superintendents shall make arrangements for safekeeping. At the same time, the Principal informed that students coming from faraway places shall be allowed to stay in their rooms for one night only by their respective Superintendents. However, they have been asked to inform about their arrival in advance.

Boarders having difficulty in collecting their belongings have been asked to use the following room: common room and library room of the new campus building, the upper and lower dormitories of the old building, the already occupied quarter, and the PG block.

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This development has come to the fore days after the Cotton and Gauhati University hostels were asked to vacate boarders by the district administration. The hostel of Cotton University has been ordered to be turned into a quarantine centre and the authorities have asked the students to vacate the hostel premises within 24 hours, giving rise to panic. Later, after a hue-and-cry was raised by boarders, they were given an additional 24 hours to vacate.

As per an order issued by the Kamrup (M) Deputy Commissoner Biswajit Pegu, this has been done "for accommodating interstate passengers coming from outside Assam." The management of the institutions have been asked to make available all the vacant rooms of the building premises by Monday evening.

Alongwith the Cotton University hostels, the Pragjyotish Senior Secondary and St. Francis D'Assisi High Schools shall also be turned into quarantine facilities. At the same time, the Registrar of the Gauhati University has informed that all boys' hostels in the University barring the Venkata Rao Research Scholars' Boys Hostel and the Babu Jagjivan Ram Hostel shall be used as quarantine centres from May 25 onwards. Students have been urged to collect their belongings at the hostels on or before May 27.