The students of the Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology (VNIT), Nagpur today staged a sit-in in front of the academic block demanding proper food and healthcare facilities on campus along with a list of other pressing issues.
The students were left panic-stricken after over 150 female students from the same hostel took ill last week.
While students allege that the incidences of fever are due to food poisoning, the college officials have claimed this to be a viral outbreak.
On speaking to the director of VNIT, Pramod M Padole, he said, “This is just a viral infection and is contracted by everyone. The students live together, which is how they contracted the virus and fell sick.”
The students reportedly started falling sick last week from the evening of September 29 onwards. They allege that they have reminded the college authorities on multiple occasions about the unhygienic food since the last two months apart from other issues including the lack of potable water, LAN connections, and a flush that did not work in the toilets. These problems are being reported from the newly-built hostel, which has several other issues such as seepage from walls and faulty electrical wiring.
“Now that so many of us have fallen sick, we are afraid to eat from the mess. All our complaints have fallen on deaf ears. The contractor who is responsible for providing food in the mess has been fined twice, but nothing has changed. We do not want to take the risk of eating in the mess again, but we don’t have any other choice since the authorities have banned food delivery to the hostel premises,” a student said on the condition of anonymity.
When asked about students’ claims, Padole reiterated that the infection is viral.
Dismissing the claims that some of the students had to be admitted to the ICU, he said, “They were just kept under observation for a longer period, and everyone has recovered now.”
A thread on Twitter with hashtag #prayforVNIT was shared on Tuesday by an account called @Suffering VNIT Student. The thread while appealing to Union HRD minister Prakash Javadekar shared pictures of the poor quality of food served in the college hostels.
The on-campus medical officer Dr Pankaj Dhule who could not be reached immediately said, “The college will make an official statement on the issue soon.”