The anger among hostellers at Kushabhau Thakre University of Journalism and Mass Communication (KTUJM) towards the dismal water , power supply situation and serving of meals reached a crescendo on Monday when they locked down the chambers of the Vice-Chancellor MS Parmar and Registrar Girish Kant Pandey in the varsity premises here .
According to students, they were not provided with dinner on Sunday night due to some dispute between the cook and his assistants.
“There was some kind of dispute between the cook and the assistants, as a result, the dinner was not prepared on Sunday night. We were then forced to protest and are sitting on demonstration since last night,” Diksha Yadav, a Hosteller said. While staging the gherao of Vice Chancellor the students demanded quick action over the issues.
According to students, taking note of the unrest among students, Parmar immediately declared to change the cook appointed in the mess and the charge of hostel warden was taken from Assistant Professor Ashutosh Mandavi who is also the In-charge Head of Department Advertisement and Public Relations at KTUJM.
After listing the problems Parmar assured them of solving it at earliest. “The mess in the university hostel is run by a cooperative kind of system which is managed by students themselves. There was some payment issue of the cook who used to prepare food in the mess,” Parmar told The Pioneer over the phone.
The VC said that there was delay in serving food and students on Monday made a formal complaint to change the cook too which he agreed upon.
“The charge of hostel warden which was with Ashutosh Mandavi has been taken back as he was reluctant to carry on with the responsibilities owing to different kind of occupancies and very soon it will be handed over to another person,” he said.