NSUI protest: PU students lament bad condition of hostels, poor mess food, lack of facilities

The students residing in the PU hostels complained that they have to regularly deal with poor quality of food, ill-maintained buildings and lack of basic amenities.

There are 17 hostels on the university campus – eight for boys and nine for girls – which accommodate around 8,000 students.

A hostel resident said: “We don’t eat at the hostel mess anymore because the food served there is mostly semi-cooked and inedible.”

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Though the Panjab University has a dedicated team, including the mess committee and a dietician, to check the quality of food at the mess, the students are not happy with the quality of food served in the hostels. One meal in the hostel mess costs Rs 35.

Another student said: “Nobody is ready to eat at the hostel mess. The food cooked there is not worth eating. We mostly prefer eating outside or at the Students’ Centre. However, owing to the hostel timing restrictions at nights, we sometimes have to make compromises.”

The students also complained that the mess employees keep repeating the dishes and they demanded that the menu needs to be changed after a while.

Commenting on the issue, Dean Student Welfare Nandita Singh said: “We regularly visit the hostels and also conduct surprise inspections to check the quality of food being served. I will take up the issue with the committee and will take strict action if we find any short comings. I will also tell the committee to make the menu according to the preference of the students and let them decide what they want to include in the menu.”

In the recent years, PU has been receiving complaints about the deteriorating condition of the hostels.

Most of the rooms and the walls in the Girls’ Hostel No 1 and 2 have uncovered wiring. Swati, a student leader, said: “Students have brought this to the notice of the authorities time and again, but to no avail. In case if there is a short circuit or mishap, who will be responsible. It’s a matter of concern and it should be taken up seriously. The infrastructure in the hostels is old and needs an overhaul to make the students feel safe.”