JNU students protest demanding immediate allotment of hostels

NEW DELHI: The students of Jawaharlal Nehru University staged a demonstration outside the Dean of Students (DoS) office on Monday demanding an immediate allotment of the hostel and its renovation. The protest was organised by a student group named Democratic Students Federation (DSF). They also demanded that hostel elections that have not been conducted for the last two years, be held soon.

Students were holding placards reading, 'DoS Jawaab Do (DoS, answer),' 'Ensure Hostels for All', 'Stop meddling with reservation policies in Hostel Allotment', "We organised the protest outside the DoS office to demand immediate hostel allotment. Physical classes are starting from August 3 but many students have not been allotted hostels till now. It is a complete chaos. Moreover, reservation policies have not been followed properly in the hostel allotment so far," DSF President Swati Singh said. The hostels are in a very bad state with the frequent incidents of wall or ceiling collapse taking place here, she said.

Last week, students of the university alleged that a portion of a balcony and a ceiling in two separate hostels collapsed following the recent spells of rain. "We have demanded that the hostel should be renovated as soon as possible. We also wanted hostel elections to be conducted as soon as possible because, for two years, there has been no election," Singh said. They have also alleged violation of reservation policies during the hostel allotment process as the administration is not allocating hostels to the students from Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST) communities on a priority basis.

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The Jawaharlal Nehru University Students' Union (JNUSU) alleged that the Dean of Students (DoS) had lost data of several students due to which students had not been allocated P1 hostels after the list of P2 categories was out. "Hostels are not being allotted to SC/ST students on priority basis and there are discrepancies in OBC reservations as well," it said. The union also accused the DoE of acting in a biased manner, alleging a "nexus between ABVP and the DoS." Hostels have been allotted to selected students who have come through this channel. We have raised several complaints in the matter, it added.