The IIT Kharagpur director, V.K. Tewari, has announced that they have a plan to recall about 300 final-year undergraduate students, “whose labs require physical presence”, from April 16.

The announcement through a Facebook post came two days after undergraduate and postgraduate students boycotted online classes to protest the alleged lack of planning by the administration in reopening and calling back students to the campus.

“From April 16th onwards, we have a plan to recall about 300 final-year UG students whose labs require physical presence. About 800 first-year M.Tech. and Law students etc will be able to join starting in the middle or end of May. Before arrival, all students are required to submit the undertaking as mentioned above,” the director has said.

Since practicals cannot be held online, students in the fourth-year BTech programme have become wary.

Study in engineering remains incomplete without formal training in practical classes that are known as sessionals.

A BTech student said their anxiety heightened after the director had announced on Monday (again through a Facebook post) that they were hoping to call back the final-year undergraduate and postgraduate students so that they would be able to complete their lab classes by May-June.

“The IIT Kharagpur administration had decided in February following a meeting with the students’ senate that all final-year students were to report to the campus between April 18 and 21. On Monday, the director said this would be pushed back to May-June. What would we learn then?” the student said.

Another BTech student wrote on the director's March 15 Facebook post: “What is the logic behind calling them after May (only to vacate their rooms and say goodbye to the campus)?”

The students’ senate adopted a resolution on Tuesday urging the administration to keep the students posted about their plan to call the pre-final year students and the ones who face resource constraints back to the campus.

“Recalling PhD students will be expedited as well,” director Tewari posted on Wednesday.

Repeated calls to director Tiwari went unanswered.