The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

EDUCATION

CAMPUS
SPA building project remains a pipe dream
Gaurav Choudhury

It’s one dream project that continues to elude the graduates. Year after year, every graduate of the School of Planning and Architecture (SPA), leaves the incommodious campus of the institute in the congested ITO area of the capital with one dream – designing the new campus of their alma mater.

Sources in the SPA say that the building project has got severely wired up in the bureaucratic red tape of the authorities. Available information suggests that the SPA was allotted a plot of land in 1988 by the Delhi Development Authority (DDA).

Unfortunately (or by design?), the plot of land came under the Air Funnel of the Delhi Airport. As there was no scope to carry out any construction activity there, the search for a new plot of land continued.

In 1991, another piece of land was allotted by the DDA to the school near the campus of the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) and the school took the possession of the land in 1992. Sources in the school say that since then, the SPA authorities have been running from pillar to post, urging the DDA to create infrastructure facilities such as roads, drains, water, electricity etc which so far remain unimplemented and the land is still lying underdeveloped. Presently, it is learnt, that the school is in the process of constructing a boundary wall with the help of Central Public Works Department and the school has also been pursuing with the DDA for Zonal Plan so that further action for design of the campus can be taken up.

Thefts on JNU campus

The cases of burglary and theft continued on the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) campus despite the fact that the security of the campus has been handed over to a private agency. In the latest incident, thieves reportedly broke through a parked car in the wee hours on Sunday and left with a stereo system.

Alarmed over the spate of growing incidence of thefts on the campus, the university authorities had introduced a token system. Every car of a non-resident that comes to the campus after certain hours, would be given a token as a measure of security.

A couple of weeks ago, a man was found murdered and the mystery is yet to be unsolved. Police sources, however, blame it on the laxity of university authorities. It has been reported that the day the murder took place, the guards saw a few men entering the jungle and disappeared in the darkness. Had the guards been more careful, the tragedy could have been averted.

Jamia phone woes

Whether you are journalist or a web wizard, you can’t have a telephone here!

That is status in the Mridula Sarabhai Working Women hostel in the Jamia Millia Islamia University campus which has around 80 inmates—coming from as far places as Kashmir, Bihar, Lucknow and other states.

The hostel has one incoming telephone for all inmates. It never had an outgoing one since its inception some 16 years back. The rulebook of the hostel does not have any instruction over the possession of telephones in rooms. Many working inmates have tried several times to get one installed in their room but in vain. The hostel administration includes the hierarchy of the warden, the provost and the Dean of Students’ Welfare (DSW). But surprisingly, for the telephone connection, a No-Objection Certificate (NOC) is required from the Registrar of the University. “This is not our problem. The hostel administration never gives us a clear picture of the communication status there. I can’t comment on the situation right now. I will have to make a proper study before that. In any case, we have several others problems to solve, telephone is not the only one,” said a registrar office spokesperson, parrying the question as to why the inmates cannot have a land connection in their rooms.

The warden and the DSW, it is learnt, are in favour of providing the facility to the inmates, but the Provost Ms Najma Amin is opposed to it as she considers it an indication of a “permanent residentship” of the inmate. “My nature of work is such that I can be called in the office any time but the absence of a telephone obstructs my career. I requested the Provost for the facility but she flatly refused saying, ‘having a telephone is an indication of a permanent residentship. I can’t allow that’. Thankfully my office provided me with a mobile phone,” said Asmita.

“I also talked to her for it but she bluntly refused and I cannot afford a cell phone,” moaned a writer who needs to be in constant touch with her publisher. “Even for the smallest reason, I have to go out of the hostel to make a call,” she adds. The provost could not be contacted for her version.

“I work in shifts. My duty starts at 12 at night, but I have to venture out at 9 pm as who will shout for me in the hostel at 12 o’clock. Moreover, 11 pm onwards is the time for STD incoming calls, hence the phone is always occupied. Every day I waste 3 hours, only because I have not been allowed to keep a phone in my room despite being a journalist,” exclaimed Arifa, who works with Sahara News.

Ironically, the hostellers are allowed to keep a TV set, fridge, cooler, washing machine and other such electronic items. If these are not considered a sign of permanent residentship, why a telephone?

“Maybe because of some incidents in the past, a few girls who had telephones, left rooms without paying the bills and the MTNL people harassed the hostel authorities for the same,” explained an ex-warden. “But that is the inmate’s and the MTNL’s problems, how can others be penalized for the same?” she asked But it is not that none in the hostel have connections. Wardens, ex-wardens, readers and even an inmate have telephones. That is because Jamia employees are provided with this facility. The other fortunate inmate has a connection as she needs an internet for professional reason, more so, because this telephone was transferred to her room by an employee of Jamia. This inmate has the connection with her for the past one year without the permission from the authorities.

“We are looking into the matter,” a spokesperson in the registrar’s office said. “Though this is a worst case of favouritism, yet nobody in the hostel wants that her telephone should be removed. We only want that we should also be given permission to have land connection which we will get transferred when we leave the hostel,” say inmates unanimously. “Well, hostel is a part of the university. If the rules for the telephones do not exist, we will formulate, we will see….” the Registrar, Mr Najeeb Ahmad, said even as he evaded a question on when the problem would be solved. And the inmates keep venturing out to make calls, be it winter, summer or shower, for the last 16 years! (Names of the inmates have been changed on request)

NTPC wins Quiz

A team of the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) consisting of Sujit Varkey and K M Prashant clinched the first prize in the Lead India Quiz, organised recently by Leadership Services.

Leadership Services is an organisation, involved in the leadership development in the corporate world. Thirty-four teams consisting of major public sector undertakings and private organisations, participated in the quiz.

(With inputs from Rana A. Siddiqui)