Video Producer: Maaz Hasan
Video Editor: Purnendu Pritam
On 22 April, we, postgraduate students studying at the Indian Institute Of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur, received a notice from the college administration that we need to shift from our hostel.
Right now, we are staying at Lal Bahadur Shastri (LBS) Hall of Residence and we are being asked to shift to Pt Madan Mohan Malviya (MMM) Hall of Residence. We don't want to shift from our hostel in the middle of the session.
The hostel where we are being asked to move has single occupancy rooms but now two students are being forced to stay in one room. The building is also very old and has ventilation issues and water shortage problems, among others.
We tried speaking to Hall Management Centre on the issue but they were not willing to speak to us. On 29 April, when around 500 PG students from across branches protested in front of the administration, they did hear us out, but there was no positive outcome.
We are being forcefully evicted from the hostel. It seems that the administration has also instructed the cleaning staff not to clean the washrooms. It's almost a week since the washrooms have been cleaned at the LBS hostel.
It's too much to take alongside our hectic curriculum. Some of us are busy with our project work, many of us are not even at the hostel and are currently doing internships in different parts of the country. It's unfair on the part of the administration to take such steps at this juncture of our career.
Even if the administration wants this hostel to be given to undergraduate students, let the transition happen smoothly. For that to happen, they can allot the rooms of the outgoing PG Batch of 2023 to the incoming UG batch of 2023, and next year, when our current batch passes out in 2024 they can allot all the rooms to UG students.
(The Quint has reached out to the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur on the issue. Their response is awaited. Story would be updated once a response is received)
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