The Vidya Bhavan senior boys’ hostel. Telegraph picture

Santiniketan, Aug. 12: Students at Visva-Bharati will now be allotted hostel seats based on the distance of their homes from the university.

According to a varsity official, hostels till now were allotted only to those students who performed well in their Class XII or graduation exams. But once the seats were filled up, no student, however good, would get a room, he added.

“There was no such definite guideline based on distance for the allotment of hostel seats to undergraduate and postgraduate students. Candidates, till now, had to apply for a hostel seat in a white paper to the principal of the Bhavan concerned. The Bhavan authorities then allotted them seats according to their performance in school or the graduation exams. The distance between the varsity and the applicant’s home was never taken into account,” the official said.

There was no cut-off set for getting the seats.

“There were many students who came from faraway places such as Hooghly or Malda but could not get a hostel seat as they were late. They had no option but to stay in rented private accommodations. On the other hand, it was seen that students from nearby Nanoor, Ahmedpur or Rampurhat in Birbhum got hostel seats,” said another official, requesting anonymity.

An MA final-year student from Malda who failed to get a hostel seat said he hoped the new rules are implemented soon.

“All the seats were filled up by the time I arrived from my home in Malda. I was caught up with some work at home and so could not make it on time. I have been studying in Visva-Bharati for four years now but I did not get a hostel despite several applications. I hope the new rules are implemented soon,” he said.

The decision to give preference to distance while allotting hostel seats was taken at a meeting held between the principals of all Bhavans on Friday.

Siddhartha Dev Mukherjee, the dean of students’ welfare at Visva-Bharati, said all principals have accepted distance as the primary criterion.

“At a meeting on Friday, we discussed about allotment of hostel seats based on residential distance of the students. All principals and other officials present at the meeting have accepted it,” he said.

Asked the revised procedure to apply for a hostel seat, the official said: “Now students will have to fill up an application form and submit it along with photocopies of their voter-identity card or a document from their municipality or any other government officer certifying the distance between their homes and the university.”

A department head at the university said this was the first time application forms for were being issued for hostel seats.

“This is first time we are issuing application forms for hostel seats where students will have to write down their residential distance with proper documents of address proof,” the head of the department said.

The varsity official said that two hostels — one for boys and another for girls — were being constructed to accommodate about 1,000 students more.

For undergraduate and postgraduate students, Visva-Bharati has 13 girls’ hostels and 12 boys’ hostels that can accommodate 2,800 students.