Govt Medical College plans contractual hostel mess system

Manmeet Singh Gill

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Tribune News Service

Amritsar, March 9

Government Medical College here has decided to hand over the hostel mess management of D and E blocks to private contractors for providing meals to hostel inmates.

The decision has been taken following the failure to recover electricity bills from the hostel mess being run under the cooperative system. The college authorities stated that the cooperative hostel mess managements failed to deposit the electricity charges which the college had to pay.

However, as the cooperative mess management system is considered better than contractor-run hostel mess system, students fear that quality of food will go down.

“The students will have no control over the contractor and he will surely compromise on quality to increase his profits. In the cooperative system, the menu is decided as per the students’ choice and their representatives are part of the mess management committee,” said a student.

The students stated that instead of shifting to contractual system, the authorities may devise a way to recover the electricity bills, too. However, a student said in a few universities in the state, the electricity charges are borne by the institute as they are already charging hostel fee.

A perfect example of a successfully running cooperative mess system can be seen in Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana. In the PAU, the hostel mess facility is being controlled by a representative body of students and hostel wardens.

Meanwhile, the GMC has locked down the hostel facility for the time being. The authorities stated that the failure of the management in depositing the electricity charges has forced the hostel facility to be locked down.