Shillong, Mar 15: Hostels for students and staff of the North Eastern Institute of Ayurveda and Homeopathy (NEIAH) will be built soon at an estimated cost of around Rs 56 crore.
The institute was developed adjacent to the North Eastern Indira Gandhi Regional Institute of Health and Medical Sciences (NEIGRIHMS) at Mawdiangdiang.
NEIAH Director, Prof (Dr) Pradip Kumar Goswami, told reporters here on Thursday that the institute at present has no accommodation facilities for students and NEIAH had signed an agreement with the National Projects Construction Corporation Limited (NPCC) on March 30 last year for the construction of hostel for boys and girls, staff quarter, senior resident hostel and guest house under phase-II with an estimated cost of Rs 56.03 crore.
The intact capacity of the hostels for students is 104 girls and 104 boys.
Earlier, the institute had sing a contract with an owner of a private hostel to provide accommodation to the students, but the contract discontinued from December, 2017 after the students raised some issues.
Prior to withdrawing the contract, Goswami said that a meeting held on May 2 2017, the students were informed that they had two options at hand.
“One, either they could accept the proposal for hostel fee to be collected by the institute at Rs 2000 per month along with the caution money to be paid one time at Rs 6000 which was refundable. Secondly, the students could find out alternative arrangement with the hostel owner directly regarding the monthly rental over and above the existing mess fee of Rs 3,800 per month. Due to dissatisfaction of the first batch students residing in private hostel, the institute authority had withdrawn the contract, but no intimation was given by the students,†Goswami said.
NEIAH at presenthas two batches of students, 97 in the first batch, and 100 in the second batch.
Students of the institute had boycotted class in the last three days demanding hostel facilities or compensation for their house rent, better transport facilities, and deployment private security guard at their private hostel.
However the Director clarified that a hostel “North East Girls Hostel†at Mawlai Mawroh is purely a private hostel having no connection with the institute.
“The girls hostel including another hostel for boys owned by the same proprietor are accommodating 94 girls and 33 boys presently. The rest of the students are residing in their own homes or self arranged accommodation but the institute has extended transportation facility made available to the aforementioned hostellers,†Goswami said, adding that due to overcrowding of the buses, the institute has recently provided an additional bus to meet the growing demand.
Goswami said that the institute has been in touch with the hostel owner and discussed issues brought out by the students, adding that the owner of the hostel has also installed CCTVs in hostel campus and engaged two female security guards at girls’ hostel.