SFI - JNU DEMANDS THE JNU ADMINISTRATION TO RESOLVE THE HOSTEL CRISIS IMMEDIATELY!!! EXPLORE OPTIONS FOR ALTERNATIVE ACCOMODATION FOR STUDENTS!!! With the admissions for the new academic year finally winding to an end, the new students to the university are witness to the rude “welcome” by the JNU administration. A welcome that greets new students of the university with endless waits for getting their hostel seats. Time and again the new students make their walk to the Dean of Students only to find that the new hostel lists are always “under process” and feel completely exhausted because of the thorough lack of transparency regarding how many seats are vacant and what criteria is used to adjudge who will get the hostel seats and when will they get the hostel seats. In sum, the picture we are witnessing is an intensified version of the yesteryears version vis-à-vis the hostel crisis, and the fact remains that the students of the university are continuing victims of the hostel crisis that has its genesis in the reckless expenditure from the fund allocated after the OBC reservations were implemented. The administration spent on things that were only peripheral to the interests of the student community such as campus beautification, expensive laptops for faculty members, large LCD and LED displays etc but refused to even spend a single penny on a core student demand of the construction of hostels. While such recklessness and apathy can be expected of the administration, the current AISA led JNUSU and the previous two (One DSF led JNUSU and the other AISA led JNUSU) acted as mere spokespersons of the administration by swallowing the arguments of the administration uncritically. Despite several reminders from the student community in general and SFI in particular, the current JNUSU and the earlier two JNUSUs failed to mount a single serious offensive against the administration to address the hostel crisis in a timely fashion. What the students have been witness to instead is high-pitched rhetoric on the “revolutionary credentials” of these organizations, and certain ritualistic protests and agitations which were nothing more than attempts at window dressing the sorry state of affairs that these organizations had led the student movement in this university into. Even lately, a protest demonstration was called on the 5th of August, 2014 to force the administration to immediately release the hostel lists and open up dormitories. Proud pronouncements of a list within two days and immediate opening of dormitories were made after the protest. It has been three days since the protest, and it is indeed sad to learn that neither the list has come nor are the dormitories formally opened. On this occasion, as with many earlier instances, the union has failed to follow up on the issue and stands once again exposed in front of the student community as their enemy and not as their friend. While the current AISA led JNUSU, already saddled with a crisis of credibility after the recent student upsurge against its former office bearers for breaching the rules and procedures of the GSCASH, would want the students to believe that nothing is possible right now and that since a new hostel is under construction in two years time everything would work just fine, the SFI would like to remind the student community about the militant legacy of the JNU student movement. In 1998-99,the SFI led JNUSU guided the militant student upsurge, which involved the imprisonment of 63 students in Tihar Jail, on the issue of hostels resulted in the commencement of the construction of hostels from Tapti to Chandrabhaga and in the interim period students without hostels were provided accommodation in rooms rented by the administration in Mahipalpur with conveyance facility. Rather than wage struggles to that level, the current AISA led JNUSU seems to be quite content with letting the new students remain shelter less even as the classes to the new academic session have started. In the face of such administrative apathy and political inaction by the current AISA led JNUSU, the SFI would refuse to be a silent spectator as the ordeal of the hostel crisis threatens to worsen. The SFI basing itself on its slogan “A decent accommodation is a right and not a privelege!” reiterates its general demand that the hostel seats that are currently lying vacant be immediately filled and appropriate alternative accommodation with mess facility be immediately explored and commenced. In concrete terms, apart from the filling up of vacant seats in hostels and dormitories, alternatives such as the possibility of opening up of the accommodations of the Academic staff college inside the university premises, the opening up of the University’s guest houses and opening up of all vacant halls in different hostels for the new students be immediately explored and considered with due diligence and on top priority. Furthermore, the forms for Second Room-mate and Third room-mate and non-resident roommate be made available as soon as possible. Given the fact there is a four day holiday from 15th of August to 18th of August, the administration should act with the urgency that this matter requires and appeals to the JNUSU to take the hostel issue on a priority basis failing which the already daunted AISA led JNUSU would have to further face the wrath of the students. The time for empty rhetoric and false promises are gone, the time to act has now come and the JNUSU needs to understand this. The hostel crisis is a grave threat to the integral and the residential character of the university. Any attack on that cannot be tolerated by the progressive and democratic sections of the university. For a university campus that is famous for its left-wing student activism, the unresolved hostel crisis is a big blot in our copybooks. There is a telling need to address these issues immediately to mark the continuation of the glorious legacy of the JNU student movement, and the SFI appeals to all democratic minded student organizations to unite to break the back of administrative apathy and break the path for both ensuring and deepening student rights in this campus. STUDY AND STRUGGLE RIGHT PATH....!...Struggle Struggle Again...Struggle Against Injustice...!! Lal Salaam Comrades...!!!
Posted on: Sat, 09 Aug 2014 18:27:39 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015