Renovate hostels, demands SFI

The Himachal Pradesh University campus unit of the Students Federation of India (SFI) has demanded renovation of Gargi, Irawati, Giriganga and Vipasha hostels and starting of a hostel mess. The SFI activists, who gheraoed chief warden Nayan Singh, also opposed the outsourcing of the mess. President and secretary of the campus unit, Ravinder Chandel and Gaurav Nathan, said a common hostel mess used to function during vacations till February 17 but it had been closed and students were forced to eat outside and shell more money.

Workshop on NAAC accreditation

With a view to teach higher educational institutions ways to get accreditation from the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC), state project director of the Rashtriya Uchhattar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA) and executing wing of the HP State Higher Education Council organised a workshop for government and government-aided colleges at Nagrota Bagwan in Kangra. Principals and NAAC coordinators of Kangra, Hamirpur and Chamba districts participated in the workshop, which was inaugurated by Chairman of the Higher Education Council, Prof Sunil Gupta. He explained the procedure for getting NAAC accreditation and its benefits to institutions. The NAAC accreditation and grades obtained not only reflect the teaching-learning environment and standard of education in the institution but also makes them eligible to receive grants from certain agencies and organisations, he said.

Sanitation campaign

Volunteers of the National Service Scheme (NSS) at Government College, Sanjauli, launched a cleanliness drive at Chamayana village, which has been adopted by the college. The volunteers will create awareness among people about sustainable development and administer oath of cleanliness. Questionnaires were distributed among people about sustainable development goals and a survey was conducted. The survey revealed that 63.64 per cent people were getting nutritious food under the public distribution system while 27.27 per cent complained of delay in the supply of ration.

NSUI holds state executive meet

Members of the district executive teams participated in the meeting of the state executive of the NSUI chaired by president Chater Singh. The future strategy with respect to students’ issues and agitations was also made during the meeting. NSUI state in charge Anushesh Sharma, who was the special guest, directed the president to replace the inactive office-bearers with energetic ones. It was decided in the meeting that the NSUI would launch ‘Campus chalo abhiyan’ under which office-bearers would ghereao the college administrations for fulfilling students’ demands.

ABVP protests fee hike

The HPU campus unit of the ABVP continued its protest against the hike in fee in courses run by the International Centre of Distance Education and Open Learning and gheraoed the Dean of Studies. The centre had hiked the fee by 25 to 30 per cent and admissions were starting from February 20. Students were protesting against the fee hike across the state, secretary of the campus unit, Manish Verma, said.