RANCHI: The Birsa Agriculture University (BAU) on Monday postponed its counselling sessions for PG and PhD students, which were to be held both online and offline on April 7, 9 and 12, in the wake of a surge in Covid-19 cases. BAU official Pankaj Vatsal said, “A committee will work out the modalities for completing the counselling process.”
The decision was taken in a meeting chaired by vice-chancellor Onkar Nath Singh and attended by the dean, director and other officials.
Last week, BAU had shut its administrative building till Tuesday for fumigation after three of its staff members tested positive for Covid on Saturday.
The university has decided to carry out sanitization of its buildings every Saturday. The UG and PG hostel students, who have already arrived at the campus, have been advised not to go out and invite outsiders.
BAU has suspended its offline classes and asked the dean to make arrangements for online classes. The directors and the heads of departments have been asked to prepare a duty roster from Wednesday permitting only 25% of the total employees to come to campus on a given day.
Meanwhile, Marwari College Ranchi has decided to conduct the semester I exam for its UG and PG students online in view of a sharp rise in cases. Principal U C Mehta said, “Earlier, we had decided to hold the examination offline and as a precautionary measure, we had asked the students to get themselves tested for Covid-19 before coming to campus. However, given the current Covid scenario, it is unsafe to hold offline exams. Around 5,500 students are expected to appear for it and our college has very little space to ensure social distancing for such a huge number.”
Earlier, the college had to postpone its semester V offline exams after three of its staff members tested positive.