New Delhi: It's hardly been a week that the new vice-chancellor of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), Sudhir K Sopory, has taken over. But he has already started feeling the heat. And it's the girl students of Godavari hostel who are giving him a tough time.
They have approached the V-C, alleging that the toilets that were razed down in their hostel two months back have not been reconstructed yet due to which they are facing a lot of hassles.
Girls of Godavari hostel (one of the girls' hostels which houses around 230 students) staged a protest outside the V-C's office and gave him a letter asking for speedy construction of toilets. "We have four toilets on each floor out of which two toilets have been broken down.
So there are only two functional toilets for 50 girls on each floor which creates a lot of problems. The toilets were razed down in December but so far nothing has been done yet. Earlier we saw a few labourers coming but now even they have vanished. We are facing acute problems as one toilet in each wing is broken and only one is functional," said a final-year student of international studies and a resident of Godavari hostel.
"We need to wash our clothes and freshen up to reach our classes on time. Mostly the classes at different centres starts at 9 am so during morning hours toilets are occupied and there are long queues. Girls have now started getting up really early to enter the toilet first or else they miss the first class," said another student.
Godavari residents had earlier raised this issue before to their warden and other senior officials but no action was taken. So they decided to follow the traditional formula of protest. 'New V-C down down' and 'we need our toilet soon' were some of the slogans shouted by students.
"We tried all options but nothing happened so we finally decided to knock the V-C's door. JNU is known for protest so we shouted slogans outside the administrative block and finally gave a letter demanding speedy reconstruction of toilets in our hostels," said an MA (foreign language) first-year student on condition of anonymity.
The management has agreed to meet students on Thursday and decide about the issue and have also promised to finish the construction work by March 31. The dean of student welfare also assured the students that they will soon see to the end of the matter.
March for Egypt
While the students were protesting about toilets, Egypt Solidarity Forum along with JNU students organised a solidarity candlelight march to support the ongoing struggle in Egypt. Hundreds of students, academicians and activists from different political parties participated in the march at the JNU campus.
Starting from Ganga Dhaba, the march ended at Chandrabhaga hostel where the convener of Egypt Solidarity Forum, Omair Anas, addressed the marchers.
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