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Delhi University plans a portal to track PG accommodation details and improve student housing safety following the Satya Niketan building collapse.

Delhi University (DU) is planning to develop a dedicated portal to collect information about students living in paying guest (PG) accommodations, including rent, facilities and living conditions. The move comes weeks after a five-storey building in Satya Niketan collapsed on September 6, killing seven people, including DU students, and leaving five others injured.

According to a report by Hindustan Times published on October 16, the portal will allow students to register their accommodation details and requirements. The university plans to use this information to coordinate with authorities, including the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), and develop safety standards for PG operators through a memorandum of understanding (MoU).

An eight-member committee was constituted on September 9 following the collapse to examine student accommodation near the university and its colleges. Professor KP Singh, a committee member and head of DU’s Postgraduate Men’s Hostel, told Hindustan Times that while the university maintains records of students living in hostels, similar information about those staying in private PGs is not readily available. The committee plans to collect details about students’ locations, rent and living conditions before consulting relevant authorities on a standard operating procedure (SOP).

Separately, the Delhi government is developing a centralised portal to map student accommodation across the capital. A report by The Indian Express published on October 9 said a high-powered committee chaired by Education Minister Ashish Sood had formed a sub-committee to examine regulatory restrictions affecting PG facilities under the Master Plan for Delhi and the Delhi Municipal Corporation Act, 1957.

The government has also proposed joint inspections of 100 PG facilities by the MCD and the Delhi Development Authority (DDA). Other proposed measures include CCTV coverage at entry and exit points and common areas, with 40–45 days of recording backup, while keeping personal spaces private.

The committee has also proposed converting around 65 vacant Type-I employee flats at DU’s Reids Line and Dhaka campuses into student housing. Six renovated flats have already created space for approximately 25 students, with allotments expected to begin on November 1.

The recommendations and draft MoU are expected to be submitted within a month. However, the real challenge will lie in implementing these measures effectively and ensuring that students living in private PG accommodations have access to safer, affordable and better-regulated housing.

Image Credit: HT Digital

Manzil Chaudhary

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While the countrywide lockdown has brought many people together working from the comfort of their homes like never before, University of Delhi’s (DU’s) teachers behind in this because the University being unable to pay for online journals and portals.

While this might seem like a burning issue amidst the lockdown, it is rather the opposite. Allegedly, the University has failed to pay for many international journals of law, science, humanities, and economics since 2016. While these problems are generally not a big problem when colleges and libraries are functioning, they become a huge problem when both of them are not functioning, and online resources are the sources of learning and teaching.

While resources like SWAYAM are still available to the teachers and students, to maintain some routine with the syllabus and classes. According to many teachers, these are not sufficient and are not as good as National Library and Information Services Infrastructure for Scholarly Content which has peer-reviewed journals and e-books for university-level education or the ShodhShala.

Delhi University Vice Chancellor (VC) Dr. Yogesh Tyagi did not respond to calls and text messages from The Print inquiring about the unavailability of e-means. In conversation with The Print, Manoj Kumar, Assistant Professor at Satyawati College said, “The responsibility for the payment lies both with the College and the University, and both have shirked it.”

“Going online for teaching and learning as a part of the regular teaching process is fine, but once the entire system is shifted online, things become difficult,” said Rajesh Jha, a teacher at Deshbandhu College, in a conversation with The Print.

Retired DU Librarian D. V. Singh said, “I have been fighting for the availability of online resources ever since 2016 until my retirement in Mid-2019. The college was supposed to pay income to continue receiving access to international journals, but it could not be performed despite a variety of attempts,” while speaking to The Print.

Singh also informed that for the University to continue with the subscriptions they have previously enjoyed, they would need to pay a total sum of INR 5 crore annually. Amidst the 21-day lockdown, the teachers and the students both require these e-resources now more than ever to learn and teach, and for the research work for doctoral students as the University has instructed for all day-to-day activities to be continued via online mediums.

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Akshat Arora

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