Renovated hostels bring CWG some redemption

DU students happy to return to new and improved hostels after three months of evacuation

sonam

Sonam Saigal | December 16, 2010




Mired in controversies and scams, the Commonwealth Games found some belated redemption in the cheer of Delhi university students over their swanky, renovated hostels which they had had to vacate for the Games.

hostel2

Thanking Delhi for hosting the games Harminder Singh, president of the student body of Ramjas College said, "Our hostels desperately needed something like this. The games have done us a lot of good. Our entire hostel has been renovated. We now have marble flooring, we sleep on wooden beds instead of the iron rod ones and our cupboards are bigger."

hostel1

The students had been demanding the changes for over a year but were met only after the hostel rooms were vacated for the players during the Games.

Post games hostels are offering better services. "We had internet access only in the common rooms but after the games our entire hostel has been made wi-fi. Our mess now has wooden sitting which is more comfortable and it is kept cleaner and organised ever since." said Sachin Sharma, a third year student at Hansraj College, and a hostelite since the last two years.

hostel4

Ranjeet Rai, manager of Hansraj hostel said, "Our principal has accepted two crore rupees from the games authorities and the government for all the renovation. It has all been used in the best way possible for the convenience of our students."

Though most of the college hostels have been the beneficiaries of the renovation work, the students of the Kirorimal college are not all gung-ho about the changes.

hostel3

Ashish Kumar, who had to travel from Ghaziabad to his college when forced to evacuate the hostel room says, “There was no water in the bathrooms in the hostel after the delegates or the players whoever stayed in our hostel left. We only have four common toilets for 200 students. We were made to use the faculty block toilets for over a month. Only after we protested about it around two weeks back have they been fixed.”

All photographs courtesy Sachin Sharma.

 

Comments

 

Other News

Before India voted, the framers worried about the referee

“We are making a Constitution forever and not only for today.” Shibban Lal Saksena said this in the Constituent Assembly on June 15, 1949. He was warning that a ruling party might one day choose a loyalist to run India’s elections. Seventy-seven years later, the Supreme Court is wrestli

Delhi moves to real-time traffic management

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA), chaired by prime minister Narendra Modi, has approved implementation of the ITMS Project by Delhi Police at an estimated cost of Rs.1,789.52 crore, inclusive of taxes. The project will cover 42 identified traffic corridors and will be implemented in three

MDR on UPI: Can sustainability come without weakening the network?

The extraordinary transaction volumes and value (₹29.82 Lakh crore in August 2026 alone) of the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) have made it not only an Indian success story, but a global one. In 2024, UPI accounted for nearly 49% of the world’s real-time payment transaction volume, with more th

The Xi-Trump summit: The unending rivalry

Diplomacy is akin to an art, wherein the summitry, conflict resolution and negotiations form apt constituents of the entire context of deal making and “playing for keeps” in the international arena. The Xi-Trump summit in Washington last week, in which the American president broke all conside

“Indians, yet treated like outsiders”

Moving to Delhi-NCR for education can be an exciting experience for students from Northeast India. It gives us a chance to meet new people, experience a different culture and become more independent. But living away from home also comes with challenges that people who have not experienced them may not al

Import duty on major edible oils cut

The government has reduced the Basic Customs Duty (BCD) on major imported crude edible oils with a view to moderating domestic edible oil prices, providing relief to consumers and mitigating inflationary pressures arising from the sharp increase in international edible oil prices.  

Upcoming Conferences



-->

Archives

Current Issue

Opinion

Facebook Twitter Google Plus Linkedin Subscribe Newsletter

Twitter