BHUBANESWAR: Mahesh Tanti, a
third year student at the
Regional Institute of Education (RIE), is in a spot of bother. He has been frantically trying to book a
ticket back home in Assam but all trains are running full for the next one week. Authorities have already asked him and others to vacate the hostels as soon as possible in the wake of surging cases of Covid-19 in the state.
“I came only last month when the institute resumed physical classes. Now, with
Covid cases rising, and given the fear of another lockdown, family members are worried and want me to return. But I am not able to get a ticket in any train. Now I have to travel to Kolkata in RAC (reservation against cancellation) and from there take another train back home. This has been causing a lot of tension,” said Tanti.
Hundreds of outstation students like Tanti, who are studying in different educational institutions in the city, are facing difficulty after the
Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (
BMC) asked them to vacate hostels and residential institutes after a spike in fresh
Covid cases in the state. Starting from getting hold of train tickets to accessing study material, the sudden move has upset their plans, having returned from home only a month before.
“We have been attending online classes since March last year. But the classes were not very effective. After physical classes resumed, we started collecting notes and books from teachers and friends. Now everything has become uncertain and we don’t know what to do? We have to return home as cases are on the rise and restrictions are getting stricter,” said Tapsi Dutta, a third year engineering student from
Jharkhand.
With Covid-19 cases rising in the city, it has become a major concern for parents whose children are studying in outstation centres across the state.
“Safety of children is really important. Even if they drop a year it will not make much difference. People are saying the second wave is more dangerous that the first. Moreover, it is spreading more among the youths. So I have asked our child to return home,” said Manasi Rath, a parent whose son studies in a private engineering school here.