J&K Students Association demands increase in hostel capacity as KU doesn’t have enough hostel space

Srinagar September 25: J&K students Association here on today requested Chancellor Kashmir university,  Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha and Vice chancellor Prof Nilofer to expand hostel space to accommodate more students Keeping in mind the growing numbers of students opting to pursue education in Kashmir university and inability of varsity to provide hostel accommodation to needy students. In a Statement National Spokesperson of the Association Ummar Jamal said, ”the intake capacity of Habba Khatoon (H.K.) Girls Hostel and Rabia Basri (R.B.) Girls Hostel is 340 only and Mehboob-ul-Alam (M.A.) Boys Hostel and Maulana Anwar Shah (M.A.K.) Boys Hostel is 380 only. Similarly Sheikh ul Aalam(S.A) Zakura,Boys (P.G) Hostel and Sheikh ul Aalam(S.A) Zakura Block- B, Boys (P.G) Hostel  consist of 60 each having total intake capacity of 480; But there are 47 academic departments where thousands of students coming from far off places acquire their education. These hostel are not able to even accommodate half of students coming from far off places”. He said that, we hope some new hostels are built inside the campus to increase the intake capacity, so that students coming from far off places don’t suffer because of the non-availability of accommodations here in Srinagar city. Varsity should design a systematic criteria for selecting students for hostel accommodation. Proper criteria and procedure should be followed while allotting the hostels. The seats in the hostels which are located inside the varsity campus should be evenly distributed among the students of various departments, he further added. Jamal expressed resentment over the recently issued selection list, where not a single student from BA. LLB course and only one student from LLB course of law department in non PHC category was provided hostel accommodation in the hostels situated inside the campus (M.A and M.A.K hostel). He further requested Vice Chancellor that the students pursuing integrated 5 year courses like BA. LLB and IMBA, who are provided hostel by the university only for the last two years, should be provided hostel from the first year only so that they don’t face any difficulty and inconvenience.