NIT students forced to stay in 'inhospitable' hostels

Nishwan Rasool
Srinagar, October 6: Students of the National Institute Technology (NIT) are now desperately looking for places to stay as they have been asked by the college administration to stay in their college hostels for the upcoming examinations.


“The college administration had already congested the hostel room by keeping four or five students per room. The room is basically meant for three students. It's inhospitable with all the furniture, etc,” said a hostelite from NIT.

A student from the NIT college who wished to stay anonymous said, “We are the students of Engineering Department and from the last four months, we haven’t attended any classes. We are helpless. Students from our class who are staying in hostels are going for regular classes but our education suffers.”

Another hostelite, on the basis on anonymity, lamented, “There are two more hostels in the college campus but because the security forces has occupied the rooms from several decades, the infra-structure is totally battered.”

Students informed that the college administration had given instructions that regular classes would be unhampered in case of strike or curfew in the Valley. This has to be done so that the syllabus would be completed and the examinations would be conducted on time, they said.

Talking to Kashmir Dispatch, the students complained that the troopers had broken the windowpanes of the hostel and wrecked the electric wires. “Even the doors are laying in the corridor. The hostel cannot be used. The college administration cannot accommodate the students in such rooms. Why the college authorities are not renovating the hostels?” he asked.

Manager of the NIT Hostel G M Shah said, “The hostels which were evacuated by troopers is not in a fit condition to accommodate students. The CRPF had been in college hostels for 20 years and therefore we could not renovate the hostels as result the infra-structure and the drainage system is poor.”

As far as the issue of the classes being held despite curfews and strikes was concerned, Shah explained, “The college administration has decided to run the buses through different areas we have also collected the data of the students living in different areas of Srinagar."

Shah added, "A meeting would be held for this purpose where a decision would be taken whether the buses would be provided to the students.”