BHUBANESWAR : UTKAL University on Monday launched a massive drive to seal all the boys’ hostel rooms that were under illegal occupation of non-students.
Amidst heavy deployment of police on the campus, boys’ hostel-3 was entirely sealed and the electricity and water connection to all the rooms were disconnected. Similarly, 25 rooms of boys’ hostel-2 and 19 rooms and the canteen in boys’ hostel-1 were sealed.
The university had earlier identified 23 rooms in hostel-1, 30 rooms in hostel-2 and all rooms in hostel-3 (187 rooms) under illegal occupation. Vice-chancellor (V-C) Prof Jagneshwar Dandapat said the action will continue till all the outsiders are vacated from the hostels. “With the help of the police, we broke the rooms open and removed all the belongings of the outsiders.
Many of the illegal occupants have collected their belongings and left the campus. The rooms have been sealed, and water and electricity disconnected. One platoon of police force along with senior officers was deployed in each hostel during the eviction drive. Police deployment in the hostels will continue for a week till we come up with a permanent arrangement for round-the-clock security in all the hostels,” the V-C said.
There are seven boys’ hostels and as many girls’ hostels in the university. While two security guards each have been deployed at every girls’ hostel, there is no security at boys’ hostels except CCTV cameras, which often lead to law and order situation on the campus.
While seven platoons of police force were deployed at the university during the process, special crime unit DCP Anup Kanungo was the overall in-charge of the security arrangement.
“Admission to PG courses is currently underway and the university will allot the hostels to the new students after renovation of boys hostel-3 and maintenance work of the rooms sealed in hostels 1 and 2,” the V-C said adding, two to three security guards will be deployed in all the boys’ hostels to ensure that only students with valid identity cards enter them.
Hostel-7 was sealed in 2019 on the same issue
The illegal occupants consisted of former students, delivery boys and others. The university has been facing the problem of occupation of hostels by non-students since the last seven to eight years, owing to lack of adequate security. It was in 2019 when boys’ hostel-7 was completely sealed owing to unauthorised occupation of rooms by outsiders.
Last month, Higher Education minister Suryabanshi Suraj had directed the university authorities to take action against the illegal occupation of hostel rooms. Subsequently, five hostel superintendents and a deputy warden were assigned to visit the hostels but the non-students locked them in a hostel for over two hours. Following the incident, members of the University Teachers’ Association boycotted the hostel works assigned to them.