Protest in JNU over eviction notice to campus dhaba

The Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) on Friday witnessed a fresh bout of students’ protest over the varsity estate department’s decision to evict Ganga dhaba, a popular eatery and meeting point for students on  campus.

Students assembled near the dhaba in the morning as an estate department team  was scheduled to evict the dhaba owner. The eviction team was also mandated to shut down a magazine stall next to the dhaba.

Sensing trouble, the varsity administration later temporarily put off the eviction. University sources said the current owner of the dhaba, Bharat Tomar, would have to vacate ultimately. The person originally allocated the space for running a food joint, had passed away long ago.

In a press statement, the university claimed that the owner of the food joint had “illegally occupied” the space and was running a food joint without any authority. The students, however, termed the university's decision “arbitrary”, maintaining that the students’ union were not consulted by the varsity administration.