NEW DELHI: The crumbling infrastructure of Jawahar Lal Nehru University has been revealed again after a portion of the ceiling collapsed in Godavari hostel on Tuesday night. No resident of the hostel was injured in the said incident.
“While I was asleep, I heard a sound. When I switched on the light in my room, it was full of dust,” said Ansumati. “The ceiling fell directly on my study table resulting in minor damage to my laptop,” she added. Ansumati said that after the incident she couldn’t focus on her studies as she was traumatised by the incident, thinking that the ceiling might collapse again.
It is not the first time that such an incident has happened at the university. Earlier, residents of the Godavari hostel also complained about the water leakage from the ceiling during the monsoon session.
There are 18 hostels at the university for boys and girls, accommodating at least 5,500 students. According to the hostel manual uploaded on the official website of the university, all hostels are spacious and well furnished but the residents differ.
Swati Singh, president of the Democratic Student Federation and a resident of the hostel said that apart from crumbling hostel infrastructure, the students have to suffer daily for basic amenities like water. “In the Godavari hostel, the water supply is limited to 10:00 am only. In this situation managing the daily chores becomes a challenging task for students who have to focus on their study as well,” said Priyanka Bhati, ex-resident of the hostel.The situation is worse for the physically disabled students, added Priyanka.
Swati also highlighted that delay in hostel elections is also one of the reasons behind negligence of the administration time and again. Currently, there is no representative of any hostel at the university.
To raise the poor infrastructures of the hostels, the student unions have organised protests but no concrete steps have yet been taken by the administration, said a student.
The university released a notice stating that renovation would be undertaken in a phased manner, said Swati. “ However, the notification only mentions the renovation of toilets in Godavari hostel and that too will only happen in the second phase of renovation work,” added Swati. JNU students have demanded that the overall renovation of the Godavari hostel including waterproofing treatment must be done on an immediate basis.