Senior Profs trash DUTA claims of CWG stadia being off limits for DU students Iknoor Kaur n New Delhi
Trashing the claim made by the Delhi University Teachers’ Association (DUTA) about keeping university stadia out of bounds for students after renovation during Commonwealth Games, a group of senior professors have come out with documents that prove otherwise. Senior teachers headed by Prof Madan Mohan Chaturvedi in the Department of Zoology claim that the various sports facilities in the university have been in use regularly as each day almost 200 students and other staff visit the indoor stadium between 6 am and 7 am.
DUTA had alleged that the stadia which were renovated keeping in mind the Commonwealth Games in 2010 were not being let open for students to use and were instead being exploited on events like Antardhwani, the university’s annual fest.
Chaturvedi says, “Various all India inter university tournaments have also been held. Inter-college tournaments are held regularly over there since 2011 and various coaching camps, selection trials have also been held. The Rugby Stadium has also been used for several tournaments as also for the NCC activities.”
However, these professors admit that the area has been used for Antardhwani. “The ground is used for Antardhwani each year but the Polo Ground also holds several events, including athletic meet, inter-college tournaments and sports meets for the physically challenged,” said Chaturvedi.
These teachers also have annexure which state that since 2011 to 2013, the Rugby Stadium has been used by DU for Inter-college Cross Country (Men and Women) Championship, Invitational Football (six-a-side) Futsal Cup Tournament and Antardhwani. The annexure also verified that the Polo Ground has been used for athletic meet, football, softball, kabaddi, handball and baseball. The area is also being used for coaching camps for DU teams.