Students of Delhi University on Friday staged a protest against the construction of a 39-storey building in North Campus, saying the structure which will overlook six girls’ hostels will be an invasion of their privacy.
Students from Miranda House and Kirori Mal College organised a march on campus and formed a human chain against the construction of the building.
They raised slogans of ‘Private building, down down’. The building coming up is adjacent to the Vishwavidyalaya Metro Station.
According to a representative of the Miranda House Students’ Union, the building will overlook six girls’ hostels, which is “an invasion of privacy.”
A student said the builder should have held discussions with the Delhi University administration, the teachers’ association or the students’ union before beginning construction.
The students said that they will reach out to other colleges on the campus for support. According to a university faculty member, the land originally belonged to the Ministry of Defence and was acquired for a public purpose by the state government for the construction of metro station by DMRC.
Subsequently, the DMRC sold two-thirds of this land by granting a perpetual lease to a private builder in the guise of property development and by changing the land use from “public and semi-public facility to residential,” he alleged.
“If building near the Delhi University Metro gets constructed, it will not only pose a threat to the privacy of the girl students living around the university but will also increase the danger to the historical buildings around it,” said Dr Alok Ranjan Pandey, vice-president, Delhi University Teachers Association (DUTA).
Legal compliance
The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) authorities said that the organisation has followed all the relevant procedures and approvals required regarding the issue.
(With PTI inputs)