PG students seek new hostel building

Accommodation located in an agriculture field is ramshackle and provides bad food

Worse, the hostel has no building of its own and is housed in three buildings scattered on the land adjacent to a field. But, the rent for the worn-out structures is a whopping Rs 52,000 a month.

The problems that galore at the hostel of the backward community students seemed to have not bothered any authorities.

The students were agitated that they were ignored by the Bangalore University. Bangalore University Registrar Mylarappa, who visited PG centres in Kolar promised to a new building for the PG centre by January, but turned blind eye to problems of the 15-year-old PG hostel, the students said.

No security

The three buildings on the Takel Road, are separated by a field. Besides, the students have to tread the slippery ridges of the field that make for the roads to the hostel.

The students have fallen into the fields while balancing on the ridges, said Tirumalesh, a student. Lack of protective walls around the hostels expose students to the risk of
snakebites.

Chandrappa, another student, said there is no security for the students.

Bathrooms have no doors

Another inmate Shivakumar said of the four bathrooms, two have no doors, the buckets that are kept for bathing are damaged. The students have no option but to use them. As only 15 persons can have food at the dining hall at a time, the rest are forced to eat sitting either in the verandah or outside the building, said Gangadhar, another student.

To avoid the congestion and in monsoon season, the students go to the dining hall in batches.

Reading room has no table or chair and hence, the students use the room to park their bicycles and bikes.

The main building has 18 rooms and the other two have 4 and 9 each. Hence, there is no dearth of space to accommodate students, said Dr D Dominick, the warden.

“It is difficult to run the hostel with the meagre fee of Rs 35 paid by the students,” he said, when asked about the poor infrastructure facilities in the hostel.

The warden claimed that after he assumed the charge, things have changed for better, he claimed.  He said during his initial days as warden he took the students into confidence, began organising workshops and training programmes to prepare them for various competitive examinations.

“Now, all they require is computer, internet facility and a library in the hostel,” the
warden said.

Rent

According to Anjinappa, the hostel manager, Rs 52, 399, which includes Rs 38,899 for the main building and Rs 13,500 each for the other two buildings, is paid towards the rent. Considering the poor facilities, the rent is exorbitant, said the students. The lakhs of rupees spent on just paying the rent, would have been sufficed to build a new hostel, said the warden.

LPG scam

The students smell foul play in the supply and use of the cooking gas. The LPG supplied to the hostel is enough to cook only the breakfast while meal is cooked using the firewood, which is also in short supply, they alleged. When asked, the warden said the fund allocated for purchase of LPG supply was adequate, but it was not being used properly, leading to short supply of the cooking gas. A proposal has been sent to the Bangalore University to address the issue, he added.

The university has also been sought to provide the hostel with chairs, tables, 18 cots, 25 beds among other facilities.

Shift the hostel to a new building immediately, the students urge.