Following a Chandigarh administration directive, Panjab University (PU) has started vacating its girls’ hostels number 8, 9 and 10, and international hostel to be used as Covid care centres in case the coronavirus situation worsens in the city.
The four hostels have over a thousand students, almost all of whom left for their homes ever since classes at the varsity were suspended on March 15. Around 16 students, some foreigners, have started vacating their rooms in the hostels for shifting to the girls’ hostels on the Sector 14 campus.
The decision came on Thursday in a virtual meeting of a committee under the chairmanship of dean university instructions (DUI) Shankar Ji Jha.
International hostel warden Harveen Kaur said, “The students are vacating the hostels. If they cannot come, there is no compulsion to take their belongings.”
The university will store the belongings of the hostellers in such cases. In case students have any valuable items in the hostel, they have to inform the wardens concerned.
“The university will pack up the belongings of the students and store them with labels in a single room. The process will be carried under video surveillance,” said a member of the committee.
{{/usCountry}}“The university will pack up the belongings of the students and store them with labels in a single room. The process will be carried under video surveillance,” said a member of the committee.
{{/usCountry}}The university has decided that time will be given to the students to collect their belongings or they can authorise any person to collect these on their behalf. The varsity has also requested the Chandigarh deputy commissioner to issue curfew passes to facilitate collection of belongings by outsiders.