Kaiser Andrabi
Srinagar
At a time when University of Kashmir has come up with the examination schedule, the students enrolled in the university hostels allege that the hostel kitchen is still not functional and they are without the mess facility.
Closed after the popular militant commander Burhan Wani was killed in July this summer, the varsity is witnessing increasing footfall as students are returning back to campus to prepare for the semester exams. There are students who have come back from faraway places as they put up in hostels, but to their surprise they found the mess facility not in place. The staff working in twin male hostels of the university are present in the campus.
The students accused university authorities of leaving them in lurch even after being charges thousands of rupees.
“We are not provided with the mess facilities in the hostel, despite we have deposited thousands of rupees for the same. They force us to eat outside, even the outside food outlets remain closed because of the shutdown.” said Basit a second semester student. “At times, we sleep empty stomach as we could not get anything from outside,” Basit added.
The students further said that to look around for the food in biting cold is wasting their time risking thme to be prone for infections.
“We are preparing for our exams, how we can find food for which we have already paid them. What is the fun of opening hostels when they could not provide food? The hostel authorities are very hostile towards us,” said another student, wishing anonymity.
When Kashmir Life asked the University authorities about the students accusations, they acknowledged that mess facility is not available citing reason that “number of students is less.”
The authorities have come up with the option of crediting students money so that they can cook themselves.
“There is nothing like this, I have told the students that I will credit each of the students account with thousand rupees and they can prepare food of their choice in the hostel. Since the number of students is very less so we cannot start Mess on large scale.” Dr Mehrajuddin, warden of Moulana Anwar Shah Hostel told Kashmir life.
“There are hardly 20 students in both the hostels. We are waiting for the number to rise. Also the students are inviting the outsider friends inside the hostels and do parties there,” he added.
He further said that “how can we serve food to outsiders who are not the hostel students, it violates the rights of other students who have paid thousands of rupees for the hostel facilities.”
However, he assured that the mess will start with the increase in the number of students.
