While returning from Nehru Place (my laptop crashed and I had to give it to Toshiba Service center) I noticed that the new hostels in IIT are multi-storied. The one facing the road had 8 stories and I was impressed. We are building new hostels too but as we believe space is not a constraint we always go for horizontal expansion. So the new hostel will be 4-storied. The rationale being provided is that otherwise lifts will have to be installed and one never knows with the lifts. I would have thought that since we have such shortage of hostels, we would think ahead and build a hostel that would be at least sufficient for few years. But of course I am wrong. The idea is to keep building because that is where funds are. Few years ago I did dare to suggest in informal conversations that the old hostel buildings (which look more like slums than anything else) should be either razed or renovated. I was told categorically that while funds are available for building new hostels none are available for renovation. This is in keeping with policies of other funding agencies too- we always get funds for purchasing new equipments but none for maintenance. So when equipments break down we scramble around for funds. Worse is that we get no budgetary allocation for hiring personnel for running these equipments. Very often we make a deal with the company- along with the equipment you will provide a person to operate the instrument for three years. After three years we are back to square one.
I was also told that the hostels in the institutes have laundry machines and I thought it was a wonderful idea. When I said so I was told that as per UGC rules we cannot provide laundry machines. Also the rules state that each hostel room can have only one fan and one light. Someone should remind UGC that the world has changed. But given the fact that they are too busy trying to impose strict rules about what kind of degrees can be given I guess they do not have time for anything else.
Meantime the hostel mess in the university continues and most of our students do not have hostel rooms. They have been instead provided dormitory space. As far the students travelling from far-flung areas of Delhi, they cannot even aspire to this facility. So the poor kids travel 2-3 hours everyday each way sometimes trying to get to their classes/labs.
I was also told that the hostels in the institutes have laundry machines and I thought it was a wonderful idea. When I said so I was told that as per UGC rules we cannot provide laundry machines. Also the rules state that each hostel room can have only one fan and one light. Someone should remind UGC that the world has changed. But given the fact that they are too busy trying to impose strict rules about what kind of degrees can be given I guess they do not have time for anything else.
Meantime the hostel mess in the university continues and most of our students do not have hostel rooms. They have been instead provided dormitory space. As far the students travelling from far-flung areas of Delhi, they cannot even aspire to this facility. So the poor kids travel 2-3 hours everyday each way sometimes trying to get to their classes/labs.
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