Residents wary of quarantine centre inside IIT-Guwahati campus

GUWAHATI: Over 3,000-odd residents inside the IIT Guwahati campus find themselves in a quandary after the Assam government decided to set up a quarantine centre inside the institute.
The state government took the decision to convert two guest houses of the institute into quarantine facilities on May 15 to house people coming into Assam from other states. "The Kamrup district administration has taken over the two guest houses for the quarantine facility.As intimated to us, both the guest house complexes will be under direct control and authority of the district administration, district disaster management authority- Kamrup until further orders," IIT-G spokesperson Labanu Konwar said. IIT-G, via an advisory, have asked people living in the campus to not go near the guest houses to avoid spread of the novel coronavirus. Few students, as well as faculty members, are staying in IIT-G as they could not return home owing to the nationwide lockdown since March 25.
Even though the institute has not openly expressed concerns over the facility, sources said certain sections of people were not happy with the decision as it risks lives of 3,000 people living inside. "We think the IIT-G guest houses has been selected for the quarantine centre because of facilities. However, the concern is that our families, who are still inside the campus and residing in the official quarters, have been put in harm's way. No one knows what will happen when the students start returning to the institute from their homes," an IIT-G staff, who did not wish to be named, said.
This comes weeks after Tezpur University Students' Council wrote to the Union human resource development ministry seeking shifting of the quarantine facility from their campus. They had alleged that people working with the facility were seen roaming outside their demarcated area, thus putting at risk everyone living inside the campus.