The Pondicherry University Students’ Council has written to the administration requesting them to not pressure the students to vacate the hostels amid the lockdown. The administration has asked students to vacate the hostel after two COVID-19 positive cases were reported from the administration block. While most students have left to their hometowns, the ones who have not been able to get transport, lack of financial assistance or due to other extenuating circumstances had to remain in the hostels.
The Council states in its letter that the students being asked to vacate during this uncertain time is extremely risky. The President, Parichay Yadav and the Secretary, Kuralanban V say in their letter that students with visual impairment especially would require someone to accompany them to their homes, which is very difficult during these times, “Additionally, there are no proper transportation facilities available to students during this lockdown. Further even if they get an e-pass and arrange transportation, they’d have to take their flights or train to their hometowns from Chennai, which is a COVID-19 hotspot, exposing themselves to unprecedented risk.”
After several complaints of quarantine centres being unhygienic and crowded, the Council states that it would be unsafe for students to enter into one, “On reaching their hometowns, the students would have to stay in the quarantine centre for 7-14 days and knowing the dismal conditions of the quarantine centres from the news, it becomes almost cruel to put students through that journey while they could have just stayed back in the hostel and taken better precautions.”
Adding that pushing the students to vacate now would put them under immense stress, the Council requested the administration to allow the students an option to stay back in the hostel and that they take precautions to keep them safe. “In these difficult times, we can’t afford to let sense of fear guide us, but need to be guided by a sense of responsibility for those around us, for those most vulnerable, for those who’re still hopeful that this university, their university will not abandon them,” the Students’ Council.
