Hostel for quota students ready, but govt won't let them in yet

By Yogesh Avasthi | Aug 20, 2016, 02.00 http://www.ahmedabadmirror.com/ahmedabad/cover-story/Hostel-for-quota-students-ready-but-govt-wont-let-them-in-yet/articleshow/53777027.cms

Gujarat government's swanky new hostels for students of reserved category remains out of bounds for them. While the building and infrastructure is ready, the hostel admission process is yet to begin as it has yet not been officially inaugurated, said sources. This, even as the academic sessions in almost all colleges have begun. Senior officials of Gujarat University (GU) said they are not aware of a timeline for admission to 'Samras', the new hostel that was readied three months ago. Hundreds of reserved category students who have taken admission to various courses in GU are struggling to find a suitable accommodation even as these hostel blocks constructed specially for them lie vacant.

108 ROOMS, 8 BLOCKS

An official at the Public Works Department told Mirror that Samras hostel, located right behind GU hostel blocks, has 108 rooms and eight blocks. Of these, 84 rooms have two separate beds, 19 rooms have four beds and four rooms have single beds. In all, 100 boys and 100 girls can be accommodated in the hostel that has modern amenities including wi-fi network. The rooms are equipped with fans, tubelights, beds and mattresses. All the blocks have reading rooms, visiting room and pantry. The single rooms also have kitchen facility.

"Special arrangements have been made for differently abled students. They have separate rooms that take care of all their necessities," the official added. A government official said, "The hostels are meant to benefit students from the reserved category as they often find it difficult to arrange for food, accommodation and other academics- related expenses. Due to limited seats and facilities, they have to struggle hard to receive what they need." The official further said, "The Social Justice and Empowerment Department of the state government had undertaken Rs 664-crore project to construct ultra-modern hostels for students of Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST) and other backward castes.

The hostels have been approved for six major cities — Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Surat, Rajkot, Bhavnagar and Anand. These hostels are to be equipped with wi-fi networks and solar heaters, among other facilities." Naina Shrimali, deputy director, scheduled caste welfare, said, "The construction work by PWD was over three months ago. However, procedure to procure kitchen equipment and formation of a society took up time. We have begun distributing admission forms. The last date for submission of forms in August 29. After scrutiny, we should be able to allocate rooms to the students by September end." She added, "The hostel will be inaugurated soon, but we do not know when."

WORK OVER 3 MONTHS AGO

Meanwhile, a higher official from PWD said, "All the work was completed three months ago. The hostel project had been undertaken by Social Justice and Empowerment Department." Gujarat University Vice Chancellor Dr M N Patel told Mirror, "Initially, they had planned to inaugurate the hostel on April 14, the birth anniversary of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar. Somehow, that did not take place. The admission process at the universities across the state are over and the classes have begun. Several students have already paid their fees in other hostels while some are still without accommodation.

Meanwhile, the other hostels too are waiting for Samras to open so that they have a clarity on whom to take in." "At present, the students have been approaching the Samras authorities but they do not have any clarity on when it will begin. Everything has been delayed because the hostel has not been formally inaugurated." Hari Parmar, a student of HK College, said, "Our college has discontinued with the hostel facility from this year. They asked us to go to Gujarat University, but they asked us to approach Samras. At Samras, we were told that there is no clarity on when the hostel will open." Tired of waiting, he has taken admission to a private hostel now.