NEW DELHI: Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) students on Monday protested outside Dean of Students (DoS) office demanding the allotment of hostels. According to the students, despite availability of rooms in hostel, the JNU administration has been unable to allot them, due to which the students are forced to live in dormitory or get rooms outside the campus.
“I have to travel from Munirka to JNU, as I still have not been allotted a room despite several requests,” said Abhishek Aher, a PG student. He added that apart from him many of his friends too have to travel such long distances.
Chandra Prakash, a first year student of French language studies, said that hostel rooms are available as several students who were pursuing PhD and Masters have vacated the hostels. He added that for the last seven months, he and his friends have been living at a place far away from the campus which makes it difficult for them to daily travel such long distances.
Hostel rooms for girls are more related to privacy and accessibility of services. Suruchi, a 21-year-old, BA (Spanish) student, said that despite getting her documents verified two months back, the administration has still not given her a room. Her friend, Vijayalakshmi and Vibha said, “We want hostel rooms for separate reading rooms and we don’t have to go to the boys’ hostel mess for food. We are also facing severe water supply issues while residing in a dormitory.”
Student leaders of JNU were also a part of the protest. Adarsh Kumar, AISA President, JNU said that the JNU administration is absolutely incompetent in alloting hostels for everyone, despite there being vacancies in the hostels. He added that many students who were already allotted with rooms have again been given rooms which show the inefficiency of JNU administration. The reporter of The New Indian Express tried contacting Sudhir Pratap Singh, DoS, JNU. However, he was not reachable for any comment.