Affiliated colleges outside city can reopen today: MU
MU defers reopening of colleges in Mumbai to Feb 22; will be allowed to hold physical classes for only 50% students
MUMBAI: Two days after the University of Mumbai (MU) released a circular directing affiliated colleges in the city to postpone reopening until February 22, officials released another circular late on Sunday, stating that all affiliated colleges — barring those in Mumbai city and suburbs — can reopen starting February 16. This decision came after MU received confirmation letters from collectors of Sindhudurg, Ratnagiri, Thane rural and other districts with Mu-affiliated colleges.
“For colleges in Mumbai city and suburbs, we’ll wait for official word from the local civic authorities before taking a call on reopening of institutes. However, we received official intimation from collectors of respective districts and have therefore given colleges in those districts confirmation to reopen,” said an MIU spokesperson.
Earlier this month, state education minister for higher and technical education Uday Samant had announced that colleges may reopen and not more than 50% of students would be in attendance on campus at any given point of time. MU affirmed this move with a circular that required colleges to approach the local civic authority or collector’s office before restarting classes on campus in a phased manner.
However, on February 12, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation officials asked that the reopening of colleges be postponed until February 22, to ascertain if the resumption of local train services for the general public leads to a spike in recorded Covid-19 cases in Mumbai. MU has now asked all affiliated colleges in Mumbai city and suburbs to delay reopening of colleges until further notice.
City colleges say that the lack of clarity has plunged them in chaos, especially since many were prepared to reopen on Monday. “We are spending a lot of money to carry out sanitisation of the entire campus. Now that the reopening has been postponed, we’ll have to redo this process,” said the principal of a suburban college.