the goan I network
PANAJI
Over 50 students of the Goa University (GU) along with Post-Graduate Students Unions (PGSU) representatives on Thursday went to meet GU registrar YV Reddy with an appeal to look into student problems, most notably, lack of proper food for the resident scholars.
The students handed over a letter with their complaints to the registrar, who assured them that he would try and find a solution to their problems by February 1, a student told ‘The Goan’ on condition of anonymity. While only five students were allowed to meet the registrar, the rest of them who went along waited outside.
“The whole campus is facing the problem of food, as the current arrangement for food that the GU made after the mess was shut down is not working well for us,” said another student. “They are providing only dal and rice, which is not their fault, but it can’t be a permanent arrangement,” said the student.
150 students stay at the men’s hostel, while 240 students stay at the women’s hostel, a source in the know told ‘The Goan.’ Initially, there was a common mess for men and women but after the FDA shut down the mess, the contract for food was given out to different people, said the source.
The FDA had, last week, after a raid, shut down the mess where resident students used to dine, after students wrote to the FDA complaining of unhygienic conditions at the mess. The students had explained in their written complaint to the FDA that they had found “bad stuff like hair, worm and fly” in their food quite a few times. Due to this, they claimed that many resident students had fallen ill. The students even attached a photo of a cockroach found in the breakfast of a student as proof.
Though the GU made alternative arrangements for food for the students, the students feel that these are not good enough, and cannot be a permanent solution to the food problem. ‘The Goan’ tried to reach Registrar of the GU via call on Thursday but got no response.
