After Satya Niketan tragedy, Delhi plans 10,000 hostel beds
Chief Minister Rekha Gupta on Tuesday announced that the Delhi Government will develop hostel facilities for 10,000 students amid a growing demand for State-run accommodation for students after the Satya Niketan tragedy. According to her, the hostels will be constructed through various departments and land will be acquired for the purpose wherever necessary. Meetings with departments concerned have been held in this regard and locations for these hostels have also been identified, she said in a video posted on X.
“We will develop such hostels where parents can leave their children with complete peace of mind, regardless of which state they come from and the students also will not have to worry and can concentrate on their dreams,” she said.
The CM added that the hostel facility will be for students of both genders.
The Government is also framing a policy to ensure proper accommodation facilities for students who come to Delhi in large numbers every year, said the CM. The Government will also conduct a survey of colleges that have sufficient space for hostel construction. The process of constructing hostels will be expedited after suitable locations are identified.
The CM said hostel construction was underway or had been proposed at several institutions, including Ambedkar University, Dhirpur, GB Pant Engineering College and Polytechnic, Indira Gandhi Hospital and Medical College, and Delhi Sports University.
The issue of lack of proper hostel facilities for the students in Delhi has come under sharper focus in the wake of the PG building collapse incident in Satya Niketan in South Delhi campus that left seven persons, including five students, dead. Lakhs of students are forced to live in unsafe buildings at PG hubs across the national Capital, paying high rents and poor amenities.
Delhi University has only 7,224 official hostel beds: 3,688 in college hostels for undergraduate students and 3,536 in non-college DU hostels for postgraduate students. Another 863 beds are to be added in the next year in hostels that are under construction in four colleges — Hindu, Hansraj, Ramjas and Kalindi colleges.
The CM underlined that it’s important to fulfil the requirements of hostels for colleges and universities if Delhi has to emerge as a bigger education hub of the country.
Lakhs of students reach Delhi for admissions to various institutions but fail to get hostel facilities, she said.
Delhi Education and Urban Development Minister Ashish Sood also chaired the first meeting of a 20-member High-Powered Committee on Student Accommodation and Safety on Tuesday, with the panel deciding to develop a central portal within 15 days for PG owners to register their facilities, detailing building age, structure size and fire safety measures. The committee was constituted by the Lieutenant Governor to review and address the acute shortage, safety standards and regulation of student housing across the capital.
Welcoming the decision, the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) said the move would help address the shortage of safe and affordable accommodation in the national capital. “Providing adequate and safe hostel facilities for students in Delhi has been a long-standing demand of ABVP,” Delhi State Secretary Sarthak Sharma said.
He said increasing the number of hostels and ensuring safer residential facilities was also part of ABVP’s manifesto for the upcoming Delhi University Students’ Union elections.
