From the past few weeks, social media has been flooded with the complaints of students of Central University of Jammu.
The students are not happy with the administration and infrastructure of the university. This all has happened after the Union Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal and Minister in PMO Dr Jitendra Singh inaugurated a new facility at the Central University of Jammu recently.
Ramesh Pokhriyal along with Jitendra Singh through a Video conference inaugurated a boys hostel which was named after Jan Sangh founder Shyama Prasad Mookerjee, a guest house named after Pandit Premnath Dogra, and a road which was named after veteran Brigadier Rajendra Singh.
However there has been an uproar on social media where students are raising some of their basic demands. The demands of students include distance of the university from the hostel, unavailability of free transport for hostellers, poor Infrastructure of the university, shortage of teaching faculty, unhygienic mess, and toilets.
The students also complained that the classrooms are being converted into labs and lecture halls have been converted to the classroom with wooden boards separating the classes. Students also complained that the administration has failed to provide them with proper education staff as every department has proper teachers for every subject but here one teacher takes charge of different subjects.
The Central University of Jammu was constructed in 2009. National Assessment and Accreditation Council ranked it as B++. Since then it had never moved up to above rankings. Jammu and Kashmir have 11 total universities among which nine are state universities and two are central universities. In 2009 15 Central Universities were announced under the Central University bill in different states of India among which the Central University of Jammu and Central University of Kashmir was present.
All the universities were made functional after their construction was over except for Central University Jammu because of political issues as people demanded that the vice-chancellor of the University should be a local from Dogra community. Later the demand was fulfilled by the authorities and Sudhir Singh Bloeria was appointed as the VC of the University.
Talking about the hostel, the hostellers are also not very happy with the facilities provided by the hostel management. The hostel of the university is in Sainik Colony while the Central University of Jammu is in samba so students have to travel around 25-30 km every day to reach the university or hostel.
The university has asked hostellers to pay a fee of Rs 12,000 for six months as transportation charges but the hostel brochure says that free transportation will be provided to students residing in the hostel. The students use private transport which they say is cheaper than university transport.
Moreover, there are allegations that the security of those living in hostel is also compromised as it only has 1 CCTV camera in the entire hostel. The internet has been banned in Jammu and Kashmir from the past one year and the hostel administration has failed to provide proper Wi-Fi facilities to the students and students are unable to get online study material for their education.
The mess is also not in good condition at the hostel. The three hostels have 1 mess and food is first served in one hostel and carried to other hostels and by the time it reaches to the student the food gets cold and is not in the form to be consumed. Sometimes they even serve food which is not fresh, students have alleged.
Union minister during the virtual inauguration said that the development of the university was under the PM Modi’s vision of Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, Sabka Vishwas. He also emphasized that for the first time the hostel has been named after a great Indian Politician Dr. Shyama Prasad Mookerjee. But the students were unhappy and demanded that emphasis should be given to the lacking facilities in university and hostels.
Most of the students complained about the poor facilities of the University. They said that the university doesn’t bother about the future of their students all they just want is the fees to be paid on time.
A girl who resides in the hostel said that there has been an incident of men entering girls hostel and the hostel administration has done nothing with the matter. They didn’t even bother to resolve the matter.
Students also complained that there are no cultural and religious celebrations in the university as the varsity doesn’t have space to celebrate any festival. A boy who requested to remain anonymous said that the politics of University is dominated by Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP).
He said that they don’t have any problem with it but if any student of Central University of Jammu stand against them then he/she has to face political recursions. An Assistant professor said that the Central University of Jammu lacks basic facilities but the administration is looking forward to providing all the amenities to their students.