JNU: Roofs leaking, rooms flooded as rains lash Delhi; students say repair work is slow

The persistent rains in Delhi have once again brought to the fore the crumbling infrastructure issues at the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) campus. Some students took to Twitter to share the condition of their hostel rooms following the rains.

Students are being forced to stay in their friends’ rooms as their own rooms are filled with water. “As rains have started again in the city, the roofs of the hostels are leaking as maintenance work has not been carried out,” said Anagha Pavithran, Co-Convenor of the JNU Students’ Union (JNUSU). While some repair work has begun, the progress is slow. “The University should have started the repair work before the rains but they have been citing lack of funds as a reason for the delay,” she said.

“Taxpayers think that we here at JNU are living a luxurious life. But in reality this is the condition of our hostels and rooms…This is the infrastructure of India’s one of the best university,” said Avesh Khan, a student at JNU on Twitter, while sharing videos of water leaking from the roof of his room, which have over 30 views.

This is not the first time that such an incident is happening. Students have been complaining about the infrastructure issues on campus for the past few months.

Latest update on infrastructure at JNU

Earlier this month, the ceiling of a hostel room partially collapsed. This happened at Godavari Hostel when sections of the ceiling fell on a study table of a student. Residents in the room were not injured, but a laptop was broken, according to Swati Singh, President of the Democratic Students' Federation, who lives in the same hostel, as stated in a report by PTI.

JNU Vice-Chancellor Santishree D Pandit had told PTI  last month that the repair work of hostels and libraries has been expedited and will be completed by March next year after students took to social media to complain about dripping hostel roofs and flooded corridors.

According to Pandit, the institution has received the first installment of the funds requested from the University Grants Commission (UGC) for infrastructure rehabilitation, with priority given to hostel and library repair work.

However, the UGC said that it has not received any proposal for grants from the varsity. It termed JNU's claim that it had requested grants for hostel repairs last year as "factually incorrect".