Badly prepared food, dirty dishes and poor facilities in the mess have left the students of Central University Haryana (CUH) worried. The problem has worsened in recent times and students resorted to protesting yesterday, November 18. "We have not eaten properly for the last two days," claims Ujjwal Rai, a BTech student from the university.
Yesterday, their protest started at around 6.30 in the evening and lasted till 3 am today, November 19, Ujjwal informed, and added that the protests were still continuing, with students gathered outside their hostels. "The food served by the messes is barely edible. They cook no vegetables other than potatoes and the other items too are poor in nutrition," said Anmol, another BTech student.
"The plates they serve on are dirty as well with leftover food grains from the previous meal sticking to them. We have to wash the plates once again. The buckets kept for washing the dishes are also very dirty. And there are no towels or napkins to wipe the plates," Anmol said further. He added that students have been falling ill with symptoms of food poisoning due to these issues.
Deepak Sangwan, a PhD scholar in Economics at the varsity and President of ABVP (Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad), informed that a new mess contractor was hired in April and the problems have increased since. "It has been eight months that such issues are continuing. We complained about them to the administration but no action was taken. Three days back, we submitted intimations to the Provost and hostel warden, but there hasn't been any response yet," said Mohit, another student from CUH.
The official word
Dr Suneel Kumar, Provost of the men's hostel, refused to comment on the issue. And though Deepak claims that the students of all the hostels are facing issues with their respective messes, Dr Payal Chandel, Provost of the girls' hostel at CUH disagrees. "I am not aware of any complaints. I have personally eaten the mess food with the girls and there was nothing wrong with it," she says.
"We asked the girls if they had any problem with the food and none of them complained," she added. "There were some issues at the boys' hostels, yes, but they have been fixed," Dr Chandel stated. But Deepak said that none of the problems were addressed and further alleged that the officials were approached for a discussion on the matter, but did not visit them last evening, even after they started protesting.
The students further alleged that the mess workers are rude to them when they complain. "A register should be maintained, as per the rules, by the mess administration, for students to write their complaints in. But our messes do not maintain one and if asked for the register, the workers dismiss us," said Anmol. "None of the provisions mentioned in the mess contract are followed. Neither proper equipment is maintained nor is the food served according to the daily menu," Deepak alleged.
The scholar states that apart from the mess-related issues, students are also suffering due to the poor infrastructure of the hostels. "The toilet seats are broken and rooms are in a bad condition," Ujjwal says. However, they allege that the university administration is apathetic to these problems and action is yet to be taken.
