Murthal varsity’s library a shambles, students suffer

Mukesh Tandon

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Tribune News Service

Sonepat, August 5

The condition of the library building at the Deenbandhu Chhotu Ram University for Science and Technology (DCRUST), Murthal, is deplorable. Students have been at the receiving end due to the negligence in the maintenance of the building by the university administration. During the recent rains, the building was flooded, inconveniencing a number of students. After this, the students organised a strike on July 31 and raised slogans against the administration.

A day after the students of the Humanities Department held a strike, the university Vice-Chancellor (VC) Shree Prakash Singh, along with Registrar Ajay Monga, visited the Saraswati Library building from where the university library, the Department of Humanities and the Department of Management Studies function and where hundreds of students study daily. Officials of the engineering wing and incharge of the sanitary wing were also present during the visit.

The VC found several lapses in the maintenance of the building. He discovered many fans and lights in the building were non-functional, electric supply was not available in the toilets and the ceiling in the corridor of the library was damaged. He also found that dirty water/rainwater was accumulating near the stairs on the ground floor. And the cleanliness levels in the classrooms as well as the toilets of the building were unacceptable.

Apart from these, several more anomalies were found in the building. Following the visit, the Registrar directed the engineering wing officials to initiate action to resolve these issues immediately and warned them of consequences in case of lackadaisical attitude. He also directed the incharge of the sanitation wing to deploy staff to ensure cleanliness of rooms, floors and toilets in the building.

Ajay Kumar, President, Deenbandhu Chhotu Ram University Teachers Association (DCRUTA), said the condition of the building was getting worse by the day in the absence of regular maintenance.

“The library building houses three departments and hundreds of students study there but the condition of the building is deplorable amid a lack of funds by the university authorities for maintenance,” the president said.

Apart from this, he said, there were two lifts in two buildings of the university, one of them in the library building and the other in the new teaching block. Both of these were four storey buildings, but both the lifts were lying non-functional for the last year, and no one had paid attention to these problems.

The university administration spent lakhs on installing a flagpost on the premises, but since last year, no flag has been hosited on the pole as funds were not provided to purchase the Tricolour, he alleged.

Hold protest, gherao Vice-Chancellor’s car

•  Enraged over the condition of the Saraswati Library building, the students of humanities and management studies gheraoed Vice-Chancellor (VC) Shree Prakash Singh in his car on Monday evening. The students shared the problems they had to face in the building daily with the VC and demanded to get these resolved at the earliest. Students said the VC tried to leave his office in the evening, but they blocked both gates of his office. They stopped the VC as he approached his car and brought up their issues with him. After a lengthy discussion, the VC allotted them classrooms in three different departments but other problems are yet to be resolved.