ROURKELA: After the Senate of National Institute of Technology -Rourkela (NIT-R) gave a go ahead to conduct online semester examinations amid Covid-19 scare, the Sundargarh district administration in a crucial decision has started RT-PCR test of students before letting them leave the campus. After four students were tested positive between March 10 and 25, a large section of students hailing from across the country turned restive and were up in arms against the institute management till its Senate on Friday evening agreed to hold the autumn and spring semester examinations in online mode.
The district administration immediately swung into action and started RT-PCR testing of students. NIT-R registrar Prof PK Das said, the Senate decided to hold autumn and spring semester examinations online and the modalities would be worked out by a committee. “On the advice and initiative of the district administration, nasal swab samples of about 65 students were collected on Friday. All students scheduled to leave the campus would be tested,” he said.
Prof Das said, around 2,000 students will undergo the tests as B Tech, M Sc, MA and MBA students would leave the campus while M Tech and PhD students having project works would stay back. With around 1,400 B Tech students and nearly 600 students of MA, M Sc and MBA classes, Prof Das acknowledged, there used to be congregations at the laboratories, mess and other places. With fewer numbers of students left in the campus, the monitoring and guideline implementation would be smooth.
Meanwhile, the institute administration rued the decision of the Senate to conduct examinations online. It said the system is not effective and institute instead had insisted for meticulously planned offline examinations. It apprehended quality compromise in online examinations with students skipping practical classes and experiments in two consecutive examinations and getting into jobs.
Rourkela ADM Aboli Sunil Naravane said the administration has started testing of students and simultaneously analysing the extent of infection spread in the campus. If needed, RT-PCR tests of all outgoing students would be conducted, she said, adding the administration is careful not to allow any infected student leave the campus and spread infection elsewhere in the country.
Meanwhile, amid fear of resurgence of Covid-19 in and around Rourkela, the administration led by the ADM started an intense awareness drive urging people not to lower the guard at this crucial junction. Naravane visited crowded market places and asked market committees to inform non-compliance of the guidelines by shopkeepers.
21 from engineering college test positive
Jharsuguda/Bhawanipatna: Amid Covid-19 scare gripping educational institutions in the State, as many as 21 persons tested positive for the virus at Jharsuguda Engineering College on Saturday. Recently one of the faculty of the college tested positive after showing symptoms. During contact tracing, the teacher was found to have come in contact with around 20 persons.
Subsequently, as per the directions of the district administration, at least 100 persons who were present on the college premises were tested and 21 found positive including 13 teachers and eight students, said CDMO Lal Mohan Routray who along with a team of health personnel had visited the college campus on the day. College officials informed that in order to curb the further spread of virus, all the infected teachers have been directed to undergo home quarantine.
Besides, a hostel building has been vacated and the infected students isolated. Contact tracing of all the infected persons is underway. The common area of the college has also been sanitised after the tests. Meanwhile, during the last 24 hours, 19 positive cases were detected in Kalahandi. As per a report from the Health department, till 5 pm, 16 positive cases were reported from different blocks of the district.