ISI Calcutta has decided to examine raising walkways around its hostels after students protested knee-deep waterlogging on the Bon Hooghly campus, with the institute also considering seasonal bus services, road repairs and a joint committee to monitor campus problems.
The decisions were taken at a meeting between students and the administration on Friday, a day after a section of students blocked the institute’s main gate for about two hours to protest waterlogging around the hostels. The Indian Statistical Institute’s campus is located on Kolkata’s northern fringes and has five hostels, all of which students said were affected by the problem.
An institute official said the administration would examine elevating the walkways running through or alongside the MTech, ladies, CV Raman and research scholars’ hostels. The review will also cover the subways connecting the hostel campus with the administrative campus, where movement becomes difficult during heavy rain.
Ravinder Kumar, the institute’s chief executive officer for finance and administration, visited the hostel area on Thursday evening after the protest and waded through knee-deep water, according to the report. The dean of students also attended the meeting held in a conference room at the director’s office.
The meeting further resolved to examine the feasibility of operating buses between the hostel campus and the administrative campus during the rainy season. The proposed service would provide an alternative route for students if waterlogging continues to make the walkways and subways difficult to use, although the institute has not announced an operating schedule or implementation date.
The administration also said it would take steps to repair broken roads stretching from the research scholars’ hostel to the ladies hostel. Non-functional street lights around the hostels were included among the issues requiring attention. The condition of roads and lighting adds a broader campus-infrastructure dimension to the waterlogging complaint, which students said had remained unresolved along with other hostel-related concerns.
A committee comprising representatives of the administration and students will be constituted to address and monitor hostel and campus issues. The institute has also decided to hold meetings on a rotational basis to review concerns relating to the hostels. The proposed committee and recurring meetings are intended to create a formal mechanism for tracking problems beyond the immediate response to the protest.
Students attributed the waterlogging to what they described as administrative apathy. One student told Telegraph India that several pending issues were raised because the administration had convened a meeting only after the protest. The institute’s director, Amartya Dutta, did not respond to calls and text messages seeking comment, according to the report.
The immediate measures announced by ISI Calcutta concern access, safety and basic campus services during the rainy season. Their effectiveness will depend on whether the feasibility reviews lead to scheduled work on the walkways, roads, lighting and proposed bus service. The administration-student committee and the rotational review meetings are the next stated steps.
