The Odisha government is leaving no stones unturned to get the students back to college post-COVID. After exempting six lakh matric students from paying examination fee for the upcoming board exams, the Odisha government on Wednesday announced to waive off hostel fees for the students of all government Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) for nine months.

Announcing this, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik said the move has been taken for the welfare of students in view of the COVID-19 pandemic. The move will benefit around 30,000 trainees in the government ITIs. The decision will free the students from the burden of paying Rs 1,125 for the entire period with the monthly hostel fee being Rs 125 per trainee.

Officials said the Skill Development and Technical Education department will now have to generate around Rs 3.37 crore that was collected towards hostel fees, from its own resources. Previously, the State government had announced a waiver of examination fee for the Class X students.

Meanwhile, the members of Odisha Parents’ Federation who welcomed the move, have urged the Chief Minister as well as the ministers of Skill Development and Technical Education and Higher Education to take required steps for waiver of hostel fees of students in different universities, engineering and professional colleges as well as medical colleges.

Many AICTE approved engineering institutions and some of the universities and medical colleges are charging hostel fees for the entire period of pandemic irrespective of the fact that the higher educational institutions across Odisha remained shut from March 2020 after the outbreak of COVID-19.

In their letter to the Chief Minister, they pointed out that as many parents lost their livelihood during the lockdown and are yet to recover from the financial stress, there must be necessary instructions to the universities and colleges under the departments concerned for waiver of the fee to ease the financial burden on the students and their parents.