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Infrastructure Woes at Faculty of Law

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Infrastructural and administrative issues find way in the University once again, this time, at the Faculty of Law.
For years, students have complained over the poor infrastructure, dysfunctional air conditioners, not up-to-date technology, and less library space. It was also noted that the administration has not sanctioned the required expenditure of INR 76,00,000.
As reported by The New Indian Express, Rajesh Singh, Deputy librarian informed that a proposal of INR 76,00,000 was submitted by library committee. “Students have been raising these issues for a long time. We have written to the University three to four times since 2016, when the issues came to our knowledge,” he said. The latest request made to the varsity, he said, was in March this year. Singh, later ensured that the Dean had submitted the request to the University Grants Commission and the once the University generates funds, changes will be made.
In a number of letters written to the administration, there are repeated complaints of space shortage in the library, library systems not being updated, and the computer systems being out of order.

Shivansh,  a student at Faculty of Law said, “A requisition has been made by the students to get the required infrastructure. While we are nowhere close when it comes to National Law Universities as far as facilities are concerned, access to online law databases like SCC Online and Manupatra are a must for a law student to exist in this profession. Library is mostly overcrowded and there is a scuffle to get a seat, at times. We are not allowed issue, expensive publishers like Halsbury and Mulla. These are some issues we all face day in and day out. I understand how the Faculty of Law is the best place to learn if we were to take in regard return on investment.  However, that can’t be the benchmark when it comes to government universities.”

Kartik Saini, another student addressed the problems Hindi medium students face. He said, “There are not enough books and reading material especially for Hindi medium students. Students from south India sometimes face problem in understanding when teacher uses Hindi as a medium of communication in class. Apart from that, fans seem to be useless. The library lacks chairs and the ones present right now aren’t comfortable enough.”

The Faculty of Law has also failed the teachers. Many classrooms lack microphones and teachers have to bring their own required teaching material to the classes.

One can hope that these matters are addressed immediately and the University administration takes prompt action.

 

(With inputs from The New Indian Express)

Feature Image Credits: DU Beat Archives

Jaishree Kumar

[email protected]

 

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DUB News

DU’s Proposal for seeking Funds Rejected by MHRD

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A proposal was put forward by the Delhi University Administration in order to ask for funds for the construction of new infrastructure but it has been struck down by the Ministry of Human Resource Development.

The Delhi University administration asked the Ministry of Human Resource Development for Rs 5000 crore for the construction of a few buildings for the use by the University, but this proposal has been struck down by the MHRD. The MHRD termed the proposal as ‘unjustifiable’ and ‘over-hyped’.

According to sources, the DU administration submitted a quotation for the construction of buildings and had sought Rs 7,000 per square meter on an average, which was objected by the finance committee members who termed the quotation “unjustifiable”.

However, the issue of funds crunch has been raised by the Delhi University administration at various platforms, but the money that it had already hasn’t been spent by it and was returned to the University Grants Commission.

An elected member of DU’s finance committee said, “The DU administration has failed to spend Rs 300 crore it had received for the construction of buildings and other development work. The unspent money has already been returned to the University Grants Commission. Due to the short-sightedness and lethargic approach of the DU administration, the funds had lapsed”, as quoted in Sunday Guardian.

A proposal for a fund to the tune of Rs 5000 crore for the construction of buildings in DU was submitted by the DU administration in March during the finance committee meeting where MHRD officials were present. But the quotation that it had put up was considered to be too high. The DU proposal had sought Rs 7,000 per square meter as construction charges, which, compared to current market rates available for the construction of any building in Delhi, is more than thrice. Thus, MHRD officials openly criticized the DU administration and struck down the proposal, terming it unjustifiable and overhyped.

According to sources, the DU administration also sought for clearance of old bills of contractors but the validity of this demand was questioned by the finance committee on the basis that some of these bills are pending for over three decades. A similar demand was raised by DU to sought Rs 40 crore to clear a bill, but the original tender was of Rs 6 crore.

Abha Dev Habib, former member, Executive Council, DU told DU Beat, “While the UGC/MHRD has the right to scrutinize any proposal seeking a grant, increasingly the fear is that refusal to give grants will become a way to push universities to take loans for infrastructural requirements through Higher Education Funding Agency. These loans will have to be repaid primarily through student’s fees. We also want to add that right now the focus of the Government and universities should be infrastructure and manpower expansion required to cater to the EWS expansion. Unless this is done on a priority basis, universities will fail to cater to the increased number of students to intake on the count of EWS quota starting from this academic session.”

Thus it can be said that if the grants aren’t approved by the MHRD, then a hike in the fees of the students can be expected.

Image credits: DU Beat archives.

Priya Chauhan

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Uncategorized

Major Water Shortage in JMC

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Jesus and Mary College (JMC),  faces an immense water shortage everyday in terms of drinking water and water in washrooms. DU Beat brings to the extent of the problem and the reasons why.  

The students of Jesus and Mary College (JMC), Chanakyapuri have been facing major problems due to the lack of availability of drinking water and water in washrooms. The college, undergoing continuous constructions since the past many years, has two washrooms for girls located on each floor and a water dispenser for drinking water outside those washrooms. However, the washrooms run out of water in a couple of hours in the morning everyday and so do the drinking water dispensers.

“Jesus and Mary college does not have pipelines installed in the college which is why there’s always a water shortage in the college. The entire college has just one tank installed which gets exhausted within very less time,” says a second year student of Jesus and Mary College who wishes to remain anonymous.

“Our college has plenty of water available, except it’s not in the taps but on the floors,” says Ananya Chopra, a second year student of Jesus and Mary College. The washrooms reek of an unbearably strong odour and a dozen sanitary infections caused by the lack of hygiene. The flush installed barely ever works, there is no provision for soaps and the floors are always wet.

The inadequate washroom facilities are matched by the lack of availability of free drinking water. “Since drinking water is not available in our college, we have to go buy a bottle of water every day. Only half the washrooms are generally open and by the afternoon, there is no water available,” says Shiyona Biju, a second year student of B.Com. (Hons.) at Jesus and Mary College.

“Everyday, I am faced with water-less toilet facilities. Juxtapositional to dysfunctional flush, spray and basin systems are the perennial tap-leakages, wet floors and oh-so-wet wash basins; water at unusual spaces, basically. It’s needless to say yet I’ll say that our toilets are unhygienic, smelly, and highly dysfunctional. I’d really like to find out what degree of cash-crunch the college is facing to not be able to employ effective maintenance resources,” says Devanshi Jindal, a second year student of B.Com.(Hons.) at Jesus and Mary College.

DU Beat tried to reach out to the administration for a comment but was unable to get a response. The students of Jesus and Mary College wait with bated breath for some form of structural or tangible change and wonder why the college exposes them to such an inadequacy of basic necessities such as drinking water and hygienic washrooms.

Feature Image Credits: Ranjit John Architects

Muskan Sethi

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DUB Speak

DU and its All-Pervading Issue of Inadequate Infrastructure

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The recent case of Delhi School of Journalism(DSJ) students protesting against the poor infrastructure faced by them stands as the quintessential embodiment of how many DU students feel about infrastructural facilities in their own colleges.

Inadequate infrastructure has always been one of biggest problems faced by students and faculty alike under colleges affiliated to University of Delhi (DU). Being almost a century old university, most of DU’s colleges were established around mid 20th Century. This, along with lack of proper maintenance and harsh conduct towards it, remain the biggest reasons for DU’s poor infrastructure.

From washrooms with cleanliness levels of porta-potties, overcrowded classrooms with conjoined benches and poor ventilation, rats running around in its canteens, to roofs falling off and permanently damaged infrastructure, to the failure of the Equal Opportunity Cell to maintain adequate facilities for students with special needs, University of Delhi seems indifferent towards basic infrastructural requirements of its students. Such poor maintenance often results in high degree of inconvenience to students and staff alike, there even being some cases of injuries to the students caused by the lumps of roofs falling on them.

Cases such as roofs falling off at KNC and DRC, as well as various cases of inadequate infrastructure such as non-PwD-friendly rooms at SRCC and Rajdhani college stand as fresh examples of the problem. Apart from poor infrastructure in its colleges, the problem of scarcity of hostels and their limited seats also remains one of the biggest infrastructural issues for University of Delhi. There are a total of 12 DU colleges offering hostel facility, out of which only three provide hostel facility for boys. Procedure of admission in hostels itself is a highly complicated process, let alone live under the smeary conditions of the same for years. Students from outside Delhi tend to prefer PGs over DU’s hostels often due to this reason. When asked regarding the issue of such unpalatable infrastructure, university officials generally reply with a variety of reasons ranging from shortage of funding to lack of space for expansion.

However, to its credit, some new and off-campus college such as Maharaja Agraseen College(MAC), Deen Dayal Upadhyay College, Zakir Hussain College etc. do succeed in maintaining decent college campuses, along with some north campus colleges like St. Stephens, Shri Ram College of Commerce(SRCC), and Miranda House.

According to a study conducted by students of the Department of Anthropology in 2016, DU students’ rating of its infrastructure stood at an average of 62%. Being a government funded University, DU is inevitably subject to having comparatively worse infrastructural conditions when compared to private universities such as Amity or Sharda. However, It also is expected to provide basic amenities like cleaner washrooms and ample number of classrooms. With most of its constructions being in dire need of renovation, it is a matter of time to see how long does its indifference towards the highly inconvenient and potentially dangerous infrastructural conditions persists.

Feature Image Credits – India Times

Rishaj

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Campus Central

Delhi University colleges literally falling apart

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HANS RAJ COLLEGE Walking into college feels like walking into a factory site. Students are welcomed by behemoth construction taking place beside the canteen and near the main block. Initially, the former appeared to be nothing more than an eyesore. Soon however, it turned into a life threat, as debris from the site began plummeting down on students who dared to venture into the canteen area. Imagine feeling like Chicken Little in every single moment you spend at college! It is rather depressing to know that the most beloved and popular space in college – The Lover’s Point – is now also the most lethal and comes with a muted ‘enter at your own peril’ warning. The construction taking place near the main block is problematic because of the sounds emanating from the drilling, breaking, and building activity. The cacophony disrupts teaching and sometimes, splinters and tiny rocks fly into the classroom itself, injuring nonchalant students.

DAULAT RAM COLLEGE

Daulat Ram College has recently made headlines for its inadequate infrastructure, to the point of social media being flooded with memes about students wearing helmets to class. On 30 August 2016, a chunk of cement and plaster fell from the ceiling during a lecture in Room 105, injuring five students. Students had protested a mere couple weeks prior to this event, demanding timely renovation and proper sanitation in the college. In the aftermath of this event however, both students and teachers have taken a more hardline stance and boycotted classes until their demands for safe classrooms are met. The teachers’ association of the college has drafted a resolution stating the same. Police and media infiltrated the college on the day of the event, and emergency meetings were called between the Principal and the governing body. The students went as far as to involve the Vice-Chancellor of DU in the proceedings. An interactive session between administrative authorities, students, teachers, and parents has also been scheduled. We have yet to see whether this will be enough to finally propel the authorities to action. At the end of the day, all students have the same complaint: if only the college had been wiser and undertaken all construction work during the long summer break, students would have not just reaped the benefits of improved infrastructure, but also dodged (pun intended) the menacing consequences of infrastructural development. Kriti Sharma [email protected] Vineeta Rana [email protected]

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Around the Campus

Off-campus colleges stealing the limelight

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Over the years, off-campus colleges have been stealing the spotlight away from North and South Campus Colleges in various spheres of courses, infrastructure and cultural societies. Therefore, with each passing year, they have successfully attracted more and more Delhi University aspirants for admissions.

What’s causing this remarkable shift from the core campus? Let’s have a look!

1. Infrastructure

With sprawling campuses and well-developed infrastructure, off-campus colleges like Keshav Mahavidyalaya, the newly built Deen Dayal Upadhyaya College, Sri Guru Gobind Singh College of Commerce, Shaheed Rajguru College of Applied Sciences for Women, Maharaja Agarsen, Shaheed Sukhdev College for Business Studies are proven to be better than many core campus colleges. Dyal Singh College (M) recently also became the first college to be powered by solar energy. Off-campus colleges are thus, in a constant process of improving their infrastructure!

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="735"] Deen Dayal Upadhyaya College[/caption]

 

2. Specialized Courses

Another reason for the shift are the specialised courses that off-campus colleges are known to offer. Institute of Home Economics (IHE) and Lady Irwin College are the only colleges that offer Home Science as an undergraduate course. Bhaskaracharya College of Applied Sciences also offers many unique specialised courses on instruments, rarely found in any other colleges.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="725"] Lady Irwin College[/caption]

 

3. NAAC grading

Acharya Narendra Dev College (ANDC) secured the second spot by getting a CGPA of 3.31 (Grade A) in The National Assessment and Accreditation Council’s (NAAC) evaluation. Shaheed Sukhdev College of Business Studies (3.16), Ramanujan College (3.06), Shivaji College (3.26), Sri Guru Gobind Singh College of Commerce (3.02), Keshav Mahavidyalaya (3.01), Bharati College (2.85) and Deen Dayal Upadhyaya College (2.63) were some of the off- campus colleges that too received good NAAC scores this year.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="950"] Acharya Narendra Dev College[/caption]

 

 4. Cultural Societies

Misba – Western Dance Society, and I Vogue – The Fashion Society of Sri Guru Gobind Singh College of Commerce (SGGSC), won all the major competitions in Delhi University this fest season. Vayam – the dramatics society of Shivaji College, Glamoratti – The Fashion Society of Dyal Singh College (Morning), Zephyr – The Western Music Society of Kamala Nehru College and SGND Khalsa College’s folk dance societies are some of the best societies in Delhi University’s circuit.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="735"] Kamala Nehru College[/caption]

 

Nidhi Panchal

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Uncategorized

Open Sewers and Broken Footpaths: South Campus students complain to authorities

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The South Campus of Delhi University comprises of six colleges situated on the Dhaula Kuan stretch, with a strength of almost ten thousand students attending college. However, the public infrastructure has been underdeveloped and ignored.

The campus has been facing a continuous problem of sewage leakage and broken footpaths. Open drains in between the footpaths make it a potential accident hazard and the stench from overflowing and exposed gutters makes it unbearable to walk the stretch. Students coming from the Dhaula Kuan ring road side are compelled to take an auto and spend money where as they could easily walk the distance if the footpaths were maintained, clean and continuous.

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On account of this, three students of Sri Venkateswara college namely, Manish Jain (Central Councillor), Ashutosh Singh (Student Activist) and Anshu Mishra went and met with Ms. Meenakshi Lekhi(Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha) and discussed these issues with her. Ashutosh Singh had also sent a mail to The Chief Minister of Delhi specifying the problems and demands on 8th Jan 2016 which had been received by the Officer on Special Duty (OSD) of the C.M. and has assured that a positive and a legal action regarding these issues will be taken as soon as possible.

The proposal of demands includes, increase in frequency of the university special buses, installation of CCTV cameras and the completion of the underpass on the Benito Juarez Marg at the earliest.  The mail has also been forwarded to the Commissioner, South Municipal Corporation of Delhi (SDMC), Tourism Department and OSD Transport Minister

When DU Beat asked them about their agenda and the execution of changes, Ashutosh Singh said, “After witnessing sewage, footpath, garbage and underpass problems in South campus, we will start a campaign named “Outside the Campus” with the help of all South Campus Colleges. In this initiative student members will write more than 1000 post card letters about the problems they are facing to appropriate authority which will include HRD Ministry, Urban Development Authority, SDMC, Public Works Department of Delhi and the Chief Minister.”

Receiving positive responses and the promise of imminent change, the students are finding strength in their initiative. It’s time South Campus catches up and becomes a pleasant experience for students and others alike.

Featured Image Credits- du.ac.in

Inputs From: Ashutosh Singh

Shefali Bharati

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DUB News

Bar Council of India issues show-cause notice to Law Faculty

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The Bar Council of India (BCI) has issued a show-cause notice to the Faculty of Law, Delhi University, on account of multiple illegalities, including: students exceeding permissible limits, lack of infrastructure and faculty to name a few. The BCI, which is the apex regulatory authority of legal education in the country, had decided in 2014 to de-recognise DU’s law course due to delay in extension of affiliation of its three law centres: Campus Law Centre, Law Centre-I and Law Centre-II.

This notice has come as a fresh trouble for Law Faculty after another inspection by a committee headed by the former Chief Justice of Patna High Court L. Narasimha Reddy. The panel reported that, the Law Faculty had just 20 classrooms instead of 100 for the 5000-plus strength of students it has. With this, it had been functioning with an ad-hoc faculty for the last 15 years. The college also increased its intake by 54 percent, which is considerably higher in comparison to the permissible 27 percent.

“The panel has stated that the Faculty of Law must arrange for 100 classrooms to accommodate the present strength. This apart from other requirements such as library, tutorial rooms, common rooms, moot courts etc.”, said the BCI communication to the University, as reported by The Economic Times.

The Faculty of Law was granted provisional extension of affiliation in 2014 when DU had proposed to shift to a new building which it claimed had adequate space for the faculty to run properly. However, with the illegalities left un-amended, the Law Faculty has been demanded to come up with quick action to keep the credibility of its course intact.

Image Credits: www.indiatvnews.com

Arushi Pathak
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Hindu College

Hindu College sets foundation stone for new academic block and girls’ hostel

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Hindu College witnessed a celebration of sorts on 28th March 2014. The occasion was the Foundation Stone ceremony for the college’s new academic block and the girls’ hostel.

The Academic Block is a result of the increasing student population in the college. This new block would provide lecture rooms, laboratories for the science students and common rooms for both teachers and students. The girls’ hostel, however, has been on the cards since 2006 but due to approval issues from the municipality and other authorities it took the college 8 years to initiate the construction. The hostel is meant to accommodate 200 girls along with 4-5 female teachers.

Lt. Governor Sh. Najeeb Jung, NCT, Delhi; Prof. Dinesh Singh, Vice Chancellor of Delhi University; Mr. SNP Punj, Chairman of Governing body, Hindu College; Shri Desh Rajgupta, Secretary of Hindu College Education Fund and the Acting Principal of the college Mr. Pradyumn Kumar laid down the foundation stone first for the girls’ hostel and then for the academic block followed by the auspicious ceremony of breaking the coconut on the site to ensure its success. After this, they proceeded to the auditorium of the college where students had already been seated to address the gathering. The programme began to the tune of the national anthem which was followed by a speech given by Mr. SNP Punj where he talked about the culture of the college and the success it has achieved till now.

The stage was then taken by Prof. Dinesh Singh who reminisced his old college days when being a Stephanian he would come to Hindu for its “bun andas” and how he is so glad to see that Hindu is ready to build its own girls’ hostel and provide outstation female students with more opportunities to achieve their dreams. Lt. Governor Sh. Najeeb Jung, another Stephanian also talked about Hindu college with nostalgia as he was almost about to be a part of Hindu.

Finally, the principal of the college took a hold of the mike. He relayed a vote of thanks to the esteemed guests and expressed his happiness over the project undertaken by the college. He then addressed his students in his famous sher-o-shayari style with the following lines –

“Unn rahon pe chalna hai,
jahan girna aur sambhalna hai
Hum hai voh diye auro ke liye,
Jinhe tufanon main jalna hai”

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Lady Shri Ram College for Women

Inside LSR’s recently inaugurated academic complex

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After the much-awaited inauguration of the new blocks by His Holiness The Dalai Lama, the students of Lady Shri Ram College for Women (LSR) are only waiting to move in as soon as the new semester sets in. The new blocks, namely, the Dr. Bharat Ram Academic Complex and the Aung San Suu Kyi Centre for Peace are expected to provide state of the art infrastructure to the students as well as solve the space crunch problem for both academic and non-academic purposes. Paucity of space had become a major concern for most Delhi University colleges after the expansion of OBC seats in 2009. With the introduction of the Four Year Undergraduate Programme (FYUP) and the number of active batches soon to be increased from three to four, this shortage is only expected to become worse.

The Centre for Peace has been constructed as an extension of the existing main building and has been envisioned as a centre for research and learning. A part of the centre is also to be used by the Department of Psychology. The Centre has been christened after the college’s most notable alumnus, Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi. The Dr. Bharat Ram Academic Block is an all new three-storey building which boasts of multiple lecture rooms and seminar rooms, an amphitheatre and an exhibition gallery along with a dedicated section to suit the technical requirements of the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication. Dr. Bharat Ram, after whom the block has been named, was an industrialist and educationist, the son of the college’s founder, Sir Shri Ram.

The interconnected and expandable lecture rooms of the new block, 16 in number, can accommodate 25 to 100 students depending upon the requirement. The seminar rooms too have the capacity to seat a hundred. The Manju Bharat Ram Conference Hall, named after the late educationist and Padma Shri awardee, is the biggest of such rooms. As of now, the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication and the Department of Elementary Education have been allotted rooms in the block. However, the final allocation will take place only by the end of the academic year. Along with the amphitheatre and the exhibition gallery, another new feature is the Multipurpose Room that is expected to be at the students’ disposition for extra-curricular activities.

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A glass panel on the ground floor acknowledges the contribution of the people and the organizations that helped with the college meet the financial expenditure. The construction of the blocks has been funded in part by the university and in a big way by the alumni, faculty and college associations. The exhibition gallery showcases the journey of LSR through the years, highlighting significant events and turn points while at the same time stressing upon the principles that the college seeks to uphold. And the inner walls reiterate what the college stands for- Leadership with Social Responsibility, an alternative explanation of the acronym LSR, being one of them. With all that has gone into their making, these new blocks are set to carry forward the legacy of the red walls.

Image Credit: Kanchi Malhotra

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