VISAKHAPATNAM: Students of Narayana Hostel on Andhra University campus boycotted dinner Friday apart from breakfast and lunch Saturday after they reportedly discovered a dead lizard in a curry served for dinner Friday night. They noticed the reptile in the curry supplied to them about 30 minutes after the dinner commenced. Hundreds of students boycotted the dinner and slept empty stomach staging a dharna before the hostel building.
The students brought the matter to the notice of the cooks in the hostel. They alleged that the cooks tried to cover-up the issue saying it was not a lizard but some small insect. However, the students clicked pictures of the dead lizard and shared it with the hostel friends and spread the news to other hostels. One of the hostellers, Satish Kumar, said that when they were about to take the issue to the senior authorities of AU, the hostel warden and other officials who came to know about it through cooks reached the spot and convinced them not to make it a serious issue and promised to take action against the negligent persons. It is also learnt that over 200 students did not have dinner Friday night. Moreover, many students did not have breakfast after witnessing the incident. Students alleged that insect-laced food in the hostel mess has become a regular affair and though the officials promised not to repeat such incidents, the latest incident of dead lizard in curry proved otherwise. None of the top officials of the university could be reached for confirmation as majority of them were busy with the CM’s visit to participate in the Teachers’ Day celebrations Saturday.