Water woes for PU hostel inmates

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, January 17

The supply of dirty water due to the poor maintenance of water purifiers at Hostel Nos. 1 to 3 in Panjab University has emerged as a big problem for hostel inmates. The fact came to light during a surprise visit to the hostels by Panjab University Campus Student Council secretary Rishi Bhardwaj in the past one week.

A large number of hostel inmates complained that the servicing of a majority of the water purifiers was due for the past six to eight months for which the authorities had been approached a number of times but all in vain. The maximum complaints about the non-availability of clean water were received from the girls’ Hostel No.3.

The cleanliness at the hostels was also found lacking and the staff was warned that if the things did not improve till the next visit, a fine would be imposed on the contractor.

Hostel inmates also demanded the installation of more CCTV cameras as the theft cases were on the rise and no action could be taken against the offenders due to the lack of evidence. Girls at the hostels said more CCTV cameras would ensure proper security.

Student council secretary Bhardwaj said a report regarding the visit would be submitted to the Dean, Student Welfare, on Monday and other hostels would also be inspected. Recently, he had sought permission to pay surprise visits to all 17 hostels, located in the PU campus.

However, DSW Navdeep Goyal said the authorities were already planning to install small water mineral plants in all hostels as the water purifiers did not have the capacity to cater to such a large number of hostel inmates. He said each mineral plant would cost Rs 30,000.