The Jawaharlal Nehru University Students' Union (JNUSU) has urged the university administration to ensure priority hostel allotment to first-year students in the SC and ST categories. In a letter to Dean of Students Sudheer Pratap Singh, the JNUSU said the hostel allotment list for male students was yet to be published despite undergraduate and postgraduate classes starting already, causing them "extreme difficulties".
In its letter to Mr Singh, the JNUSU said, "The classes for UG and PG batch of 2022 started on 21 and 28 November 2022, respectively. But, so far, your office has not come up with any hostel allotment list for the male students, as a result of which students are facing extreme difficulties. "Therefore, it is of utmost importance that the allotment process for male students starts at the earliest."
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The JNUSU claimed that the office of the Dean of Students had cited a lack of seats for delays in the allotment process. The students' union suggested that the administration come up with temporary accommodations to tide over the shortage. "The Sabarmati dormitory, which has been marked as a Covid Care centre, can be converted to a dormitory for male students as there are negligible Covid cases being reported now.
"Similarly, other unoccupied guest houses and buildings within the campus should also be converted as temporary accommodation spaces for the students until there are vacancies available in the hostel," it said. The university has 18 hostels for boys and girls and one complex for married students. The students' union has also suggested that the university resume allocating the Mahanadi hostel for married research scholars.
"Since two months have passed since the last single-seater allotment list was released and many students have submitted their thesis and vacated their rooms... it is also requested that the single-seater allotment list be put up at the earliest so that there are vacancies in the double seaters as well," the JNUSU said. PTI's calls and texts to Singh seeking his comment on the issue went unanswered.
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