Hyderabad: Osmania University campus tense as Covid cases on rise

Vidyanagar: The Osmania University authorities are facing a barrage of criticism for hushing up the COVID positive cases found on the campus after the hostels were reopened.

According to sources, the hostels were reopened for the second years, postgraduate course students. Besides, the research scholars were allowed to return to their hostels.

However, while the Covid tests were conducted for the research scholars, the same process was not followed in the case of postgraduate students when the hostels were reopened. Apart from those for whom the hostels were reopened, "There were also some boarders who were not on the rolls returned to the hostels." In turn, this has led to Covid positive cases both in the boys and girls hostels.

Following these developments, the university authorities have started the process of testing once again among the postgraduate students. However, it is alleged that officials are covering up the initial negligence of not conducting the tests for all students returning to hostels.

Speaking to The Hans India, Lakshman (name changed), a postgraduate student from the OU, said, "the authorities wanted to send the students who tested positive to the quarantine facilities.

However, some were asked to return to their homes. But, there was no record of where those students were going and no crosscheck seems to have been done, either by the university authorities or health authorities," he added.

Against this backdrop, State SFI president R L Murthy said, "There is a health centre on the campus. We have asked the authorities to open a quarantine centre so that the students who developed Covid symptoms could be moved there for isolation." However, the university authorities are yet to respond to it, he added.

Velpula Sanjay of OU Bahujan Student Association said that six cases were reported from the girls' postgraduate hostel and two more cases from the NRS hostel. In both cases, the persons were asked to go home.

When we asked the principal and registrar of the university why they reportedly took a decision to send people with Covid back to their native places, they said it might spread on the campus. "We are asking for a quarantine facility on campus but to date, there is no response," he said.

A senior official from the OU administration said on condition of anonymity, "No one knows whether these developments are known to in-charge Vice-Chancellor Aravind Kumar.

Normally, on earlier occasions vice-chancellors used to intervene when students complained about the quality of food in the hostel mess, and when such issues were raised by the staff members. But, here is a situation in which no one knows what the VC is doing when the cases of Covid are being reported on the campus," he said.