Sidho-Kanho-Birsha University in Purulia has waived fees in the current semester of the students from Covid-affected families.

An official of the university said the decision was taken after a significant number of Covid cases were reported from families of disadvantaged students during the second wave of infections.

“The students who will get the studentship will not have to pay the fees in the current semester, which spans from January to June. The fee for lab based subjects ranges between Rs 2,000 to Rs 2,500. That for the non-lab based subjects ranges between Rs 1,500 to Rs 2,000. The students have to apply with relevant documents,” he said.

Vice-chancellor Dipak Kar said the students from Covid-affected families who had already paid the fees would get a refund. “Covid has claimed the earning members of many families. The cost of treatment is financially crippling, too. It would be inhuman to collect the semester fees from such students, who are anyway underprivileged,” said Kar.

The university has close to 2,500 students.

Many of the students are tribals or from Scheduled Castes and Tribes. Their parents are daily wage earners or farmers, who have been hit hard by the pandemic.

“Covid has crippled them further,” said an official of the university.

The university is spending Rs 12.05 lakh from its coffers so the 2,500-odd students receive Rs 500 each to recharge their data packs for three months.

The university has formed a Covid management committee to keep track of cases in families of employees and students and help students or staff by providing ambulances, oxygen cylinders and medicines.

“We can verify the applications for fee waiver by going through the records available with the committee,” said an official.

The Maulana Abul Kalam Azad University of Technology, to which all private engineering colleges in Bengal are affiliated, had announced last week that it would waive the semester fees of the students who have lost earning members of their families to Covid-19.