Patna University: Hostellers to deposit two-months' mess fee in advance

PATNA: With a view to ensuring smooth functioning of messes in Patna University (PU) hostels, students will have to deposit at least two months’ fee in advance at the time of admission.
This was decided at a meeting of the PU authorities with the Patna University Students’ Union (PUSU) office-bearers on Monday under the chairmanship of vice-chancellor (VC) Rash Bihari Prasad Singh.
Earlier, the union leaders had complained of irregular functioning of messes in most hostels, causing inconvenience to the boarders. The mess contractors had also complained of irregular payment of mess charges by students.
A committee, consisting of PU officials and student representatives, was constituted to decide the quantum of mess charges to be realized from students and the menu for lunch and dinner to be served. The body, headed by PU registrar Manoj Kumar Mishra, consists of students’ welfare dean N K Jha, proctor Rajneesh Kumar, Patna Science College hostel superintendent M P Trivedi, his Patna College and B N College counterparts Manoj Kumar and D N Sinha. PUSU office-bearers Mohit Prakash (president), Anjana Singh (vice-president), Manikant Mani (general secretary), Kumar Satyam (treasurer), and Raja Ravi (joint secretary) are part of the committee as well.
PU, a teaching-cum-residential university, hardly provides hostel accommodation to 10% students enrolled in its various undergraduate and postgraduate courses. Although there are more than 20,000 students pursuing different courses at a time, the university does not provide accommodation to more than 2,000 students.
PU students’ welfare dean N K Jha said, “Not more than 800 PG students can be accommodated in the university hostels. The PG hostels are located at Saidpur, Rani Ghat and Krishna Kunj (for girls). Girls enrolled in UG courses are also accommodated in PG girls’ hostels.”
Hostels meant for students of Patna College and B N College were until recently occupied by unauthorized people. The hostels of Patna Women’s College, Magadh Mahila College and Patna Science College are allotted to bonafide scholars, but they cannot accommodate all of them.
The VC has instructed all the superintendents to make allotments of all the sanctioned seats in their respective hostels and ensure that no outsider is allowed to stay in hostels. Police must be informed about any illegal boarder found staying in hostels, they have been told.
At a recent meeting of the VCs held at the Raj Bhavan, deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi as well as home department additional chief secretary Amir Shubhani had assured PU of all administrative help in flushing out anti-social elements from the campus as well as hostels.