Presidency’s entrance deferred
The admission tests for the postgraduate courses of Presidency University scheduled for June 21 have been postponed. An announcement on the website of the of the state joint entrance examinations (JEE) board, which conducts the examinations, states that new dates for the tests will be announced later on. An official said the university decided to postpone the tests because it would conduct the eighth semester exams only after June 10. Earlier, the state government had announced that campuses will remain shit till that period.
Civic body to adopt new plan to curb Covid cases
The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) has decided to adopt a three-pronged strategy to curb coronavirus cases in those areas from where new patients are being reported every day, a senior official of the civic body said. The KMC has decided to decongest markets by shifting some stalls to parks and open grounds, checking whether there is any gap in the implementation of measures in containment zones and starting a campaign. The decisions were taken at a meeting attended by KMC mayor Firhad Hakim. The strategies would be implemented first in a large part of north Kolkata, which includes the city’s wholesale hub Burrabazar, and eastern part of the state capital.
Varsity students raise funds for staff
A group of students of the National University of Juridical Sciences (NUJS) raised funds to provide Rs 5,000 each to the 80 members of the institution’s support staff. The students arranged the one-time monetary help to ease the employees’ inconvenience during the lockdown. Around Rs 70,000 has been kept aside for treatment if any of the employees get infected by the coronavirus. Some of the employees are permanent, while others are casual workers. Salaries of casual workers vary between Rs 8,000 and Rs 12,000.
Kolkata colleges asked to sanitise campuses
The Calcutta University has directed its all affiliated colleges to sanitise their campuses within 10 days of the lifting of the lockdown. The colleges have also been told that the final semester examinations of all undergraduate and postgraduate courses will be conducted within a month of the colleges reopening. The university has 150-odd affiliated colleges. Apart from this, the university will have to eight campuses
and 16 hostels. According to the revised academic calendar the UGC released, universities have to finish the even semester for the 2019-20 session on May 31.
Pranab Mondal
Our correspondent in West Bengal
pranabm@newindianexpress.com