Asked to vacate hostel, MDU students protest

Ravinder Saini
Tribune News Service
Rohtak, June 19

About 100 students of Maharshi Dayanand University (MDU) here are up in arms against an order of the chief warden of one of the boys’ hostel, asking them to vacate the premises within 48 hours apparently to accommodate commandos of Union Home Minister Amit Shah, who will visit the city on June 21 for the state-level yoga function.

Inmates of Neelkanth Hostel protested outside the Vice-Chancellor’s house on Tuesday night and demanded immediate withdrawal of the order.

The hostel authorities, however, claimed that not much must be read into the chief warden’s order as hotels were generally vacated after the examinations for repair and whitewash.

Sources say Neelkanth Hostel has 300 rooms and these have been allotted to students of English, hotel and tourism management, psychology, public administration, chemistry and library science. About 200 students have already vacated the hostel. Those staying back, 100 in number, are firm not vacating the premises.

“We are staying put as we are preparing for National Eligibility Test (NET) and competitive exams. The authorities are forcing us vacate the hostel so that Shah’s commandos can stay here. But we will not vacate the rooms come what may. The rooms are meant for students, and not for commandos,” a student said.

There are 10 hostels in the MDU and all, barring Neelkanth Hostel, have been vacated.

“The order to vacate the hostels is devoid of logic. We are here to prepare for competitive exams,” another student said.

Sudhir Kumar, chief warden, said: “Every year, the university gets the hostels vacated for repair and whitewash. This time, hostel inmates have been allowed to stay back for NET and other exams. There is no plan to make stay arrangements for Shah’s commandos at Neelkanth Hostel.”