District magistrate (DM) Anupam Kumar on Tuesday ordered the cancellation of allotment of rooms in hostels of Babasaheb Bhim Rao Ambedkar Bihar University on caste lines.

The order came in the wake of the clashes between two hostile groups of boarders of hostels under the university.

The DM has asked registrar Vivekanand Shukla, dean (students' welfare) Birendra Kumar Singh and development officer Kalyan Kumar to allot rooms only on the basis of merit.

'All previous allotments stand cancelled,' said the DM. He held detailed talks with university officials following chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi's instruction to look into the complaints of boarders of Thakkar Bappa hostel after they met him on Saturday. The delegation had sought his intervention to check the Duke Hostel inmates, who had thrashed them.

The DM and senior superintendent of police (SSP) Ranjit Kumar Mishra, in a report sent to the chief minister's office, on Tuesday afternoon said the issues pertaining to the boarders of several hostels of the university had been amicably settled. He added that the hostel rooms would henceforth be allotted to students on the basis of merit. 'There has been differences among the students and this would be filled up only by keeping them together. Social evils of hatred and inferiority complex on the basis of caste lines should come to an end,' said the DM.

Langat Singh College principal Amrendra Narayan Yadav recalled how the university had facilitated the allotment of rooms in the hostels to boarders on caste lines since 2007-2008. The DM had ordered the opening of Duke hostel and asked the registrar to incorporate the names of sub-divisional officer (east) and the deputy SP (city) into the core members of the allotment committee of the hostel formed by the university.

The DM said the period of stay would be fixed at the time of allotment of hostel rooms. Else, the degrees or certificates of students, who prolong their stay, would be held back as punishment. The duration of the stay in any hostel would be only for duration of the course the student pursues.

The DM explored the possibilities of keeping the character certificates of such boarders pending with the university officers. Hailing the DM's move, registrar Shukla said: 'The university would now initiate fresh formalities in a day or two to allocate the hostel rooms according to the DM's order.'

The university should try to install closed-circuit television cameras and place a register at the entrance gate of the hostels. There should not be any activity of collecting money in the name of organising festivals on the campus.

SSP Mishra said the boarders celebrating Saraswati Puja would have to obtain permission from the police. 'It is illegal to take out immersion procession of deities without police permission,' he added.