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The residents of Meghdoot Hostel have expressed dismay upon their living conditions and have alleged that various arbitrary decisions have been taken by the authorities. The accusations have mostly been levelled against the former provost of the Hostel, Dr Pratibha Mehta Luthra, who has reportedly recently retired from her Hostel duties.  

Meghdoot Hostel is one of the two University hostels for women in North Campus. It primarily admits masters and PhD students. It has been reported that after the pandemic, quite a few hostels were not well equipped to take in fresh students. In Meghdoot Hostel most students were admitted as guest residents and were asked to pay a higher fee. It has been alleged that there was complete lack of transparency in the admission process. The basis on which students were admitted into the hostel is unclear and whether university guidelines were followed is in question. Reportedly, a disproportionately high number of science students, particularly students from Dr B.R. Ambedkar Center for Biomedical Research – the institution in which the former provost is a faculty member-were given permanent seats.

Students who were not given a permanent seat were asked to vacate on a short notice. Those who were about to complete their courses requested for brief extensions so that they could be allowed to stay at the hostel until the completion of their courses. Most of these requests were denied. Asking students to vacate their rooms on a short notice caused immense disruption as many of them did not have any other place to stay.

“My dissertation submission was on the 15th of June. I simply needed a 15-day extension. My application for extension was approved by the Department Head as well. Yet, the provost denied me an extension and refused to listen to my concerns” – a former resident of the hostel who wishes to remain anonymous

The former provost had reportedly undertaken the task of establishing a Saraswati idol in the Hostel premises. While the hostel often fell short of ensuring basic necessities for the residents, it was alleged that a considerable amount of the funds was spent in the establishment and maintenance of the idol. Multiple Hindu religious events such as havans and pujas were organised and it has been alleged that the students were coerced to participant in them. However, this has been refuted by a resident who stated that although religious gatherings and events were organised, attending them was a matter of choice. After the establishment of the idol, the hostel authorities stopped non-vegetarian food from being served in the mess. When this decision was met with complaints, the provost reportedly reasoned that non-vegetarian food cannot possibly be allowed in the hostel premises as the piety of the space had to be maintained due to the presence of the idol.

“We were repeatedly asked to participate in the events organised by the hostel. We were told that non participation in these events would affect our applications for permanents seats. Women from all over the country, from diverse cultures and different faiths, reside in our hostel. They were all asked to attend havans early in the morning. The prejudice that the provost had was very evident. – a resident of Meghdoot hostel who requested to remain anonymous

DU Beat contacted the members of the managing committee and the former provost to respond to the allegations.

“Thank you for kindly communicating with me on the matter. I held a meeting with the students on 2nd June 2023 in the matter. The response from them has been communicated to the management committee. Everything has been done as per rule and based on the request from the students.”  – Dr Pratibha Mehta Luthra, Provost, Meghdoot Hostel

Reportedly a new provost has been appointed to the hostel. The students hope that their concerns are taken care of with greater sincerity in future.

Featured image credits: Joon Square

Read also – https://dubeat.com/2023/04/30/lsr-hostel-student-suffers-injuries-after-ceiling-collapse/

DU Beat

Pulse, the annual Cultural fest of All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) which closed on 22nd September, faced immense backlash for mismanagement, chaos, and alleged forgery of results in the fashion show event.

The 19th edition of Pulse, the annual Cultural fest of All India Institution of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), took place from 16th to 22nd  September. This coveted event soon turned into a chaos when many of their events were delayed by an hour or more. The management is also being accused of forgery in results of the fashion competition, Panache.

An anonymous source from Shaheed Sukhdev College of Business Studies (SSCBS), told DU Beat, “The entire event was chaotic. We had solo performances, after the event began they told us then that they don’t have instruments set up, which is necessary for performances. So many colleges like Jesus and Mary College and us, helped them set up. Also, the process of sorting of slots wasn’t done right. And the students there weren’t supportive of the participants.” He also said that after a delay of one hour, the first-year members of Dhwani, SSCBS’s Western Music Society, went up on the stage and people in the back were yelling and unnecessarily shouting which made the entire process for the first-years very traumatic. “We literally had to stop the performance to make them (the crowd) silent and then continue. We had to encourage them (our juniors) and tell them that crowd of other places is genuinely better,” He added.

Arjun Jaiswal, Member of Dhwani, said “Being on stage, there were many lights and hence we couldn’t identify who and from where the people were shouting. And the only action taken against them was there were told by the anchor to leave the auditorium or stay quiet.”

The mismanagement did not just restrict itself to the Western Music event, but to the Fashion event as well.  Since past three years, AIIMS has been accused of forging results and favour certain teams. This year the fashion societies of various colleges witnessed the same in Panache, the Fashion Show.

Anshika Jain, President of IVouge, the fashion society of Sri Guru Gobind Singh College, said, “They promised us that results wouldn’t be forged like the previous years. They made us believe that it won’t happen. But we get to know that the results were rigged and the judges were switched last minute which was after 1 a.m. It was a waste of time and energy for all the teams who performed. We were given 3rd position, but they didn’t provide us with the mark sheet when asked. Later on when got the picture of mark sheet after arguing for about an hour the results were different from those announced. One of the judges, Ankit Gera agreed that the judgement was biased and that the teams faced injustice.”

She also added, “A few teams practiced on the main stage for 20-30 minutes whereas the other teams weren’t allowed to do the same.”  The fashion society event was delayed for four hours. Many societies, who were promised two rooms for themselves and heavy props, were given only one small room. Other than this, many teams were not even informed of their slot right until they came to the stage which gave them no time to prepare.

In protest of what happened, many fashion societies have come together and stand in solidarity against this. They might boycott AIIMS next year onwards. Many societies have resorted to Instagram to share their experience of this day with numerous posts to prevent anything like this in future.

 


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IVogue kickstarted its session 2019-2020 by securing 3rd position at Pulse – The Annual Fashion event at AIIMS @pulse.aiims, but just like the previous years, the sequence of events of mismanagement were no different. Not only the judging panel was changed at the very last moment, but the scorecards were also tampered with by the organizers of the event. In the era of nepotism, the scores of the favoured teams were spiked at the last moment. The scorecards evidently reflect the results that were intended to be declared by the judges. The scores were changed right before declaring the results and the judges candidly admitted the same. Also, the scorecards were not made transparent initially, being the participants. Every team puts in a hefty amount of hard work into these performances and deserve a fair judgement procedure. We stand united against the biasness and appeal every other team to do the same.

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@pulse.aiims has always been counted as one of the most awaited competitions of the season and seeing such mismanagement was highly disappointing. And we got to know that the result was rigged and the judging panel was switched at the last minute (and this is the 3rd time the same thing happened). After the results were told onstage, we went to the judges asking for feedback along with other college teams but instead of constructive criticism, the judging panel went berserk and shouted in a very unethical manner. Moreover, the event got delayed and all the teams were forced to wait for a long span of 4 hours. The result sheets were shown after an hour of arguing where in we had scored the highest in some sheets (being 7th slot, IHE) despite which not even the third position was given to us! This is the first time one of the judge among all of the judges agreed to the statement of the teams that it was biased ( And the judge was @ankitgera001 who agreed that it was biased). We need to put a stop to this and all the societies must raise their voices against this incident. @ivogue.sggscc @glitzfashionsociety @galorefashionsoc @bizarre_thefashionsociety @mlncbellissimo

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A fashion society member, on the condition of anonymity said, “Bringing our problems to the head coordinator, I also want quote the words of what they said in response- ‘yehi hoga, itna hai toh mat aana agli baar.’ (This will continue to happen, if you are so displeased then don’t come again.)”

 Feature Image Credits: DU Beat Archives

Chhavi Bahmba

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