At UoH, there is no dearth of committees that students have at their disposal. However, some others, who toil it out on campus so that students have a comfortable life, are often at a loss.
One case in point is Mr. Motilal Chaudhary, who runs the cycle shop in UoH from 1984 – much before many of the students who study here were born. He and his wife came here bag and baggage from Uttar Pradesh and later raised their four children here.
Currently, Moti does not have a place to lock up the work-impending cycles when he leaves for his home at Gopanpally. With cycle thefts rampant on campus, Moti, who leads a hand to mouth sustenance, bears the brunt as students ask for a new cycle instead of the lost ones.
“The room behind our shop is locked up and full of useless remnants of construction works that go on. We requested the Estate Department multiple times to let us pay a rent and use it; but in vain,” he laments.
One fine morning this September, he got another shocking surprise. He found that all the cycles parked outside his shop were thrown into the bushes behind. He is clueless to this day about who would have done something so ruthless. “If it happens again, I will report it. I pay a rent for this place; even I need security,” he says.
But what would happen if he reports the incident? Speaking to UoH Dispatch, Deputy Registrar (GAD) Mr. Raseel Ahluwalia said that the Campus Amenities Committee (CAC) looks into the requirement and approval of vendors on campus. This body, currently chaired by Prof. G Uma Maheshwara Rao (Centre for Applied Linguistics and Translation Studies), has representation from faculty, students and the administration. However, there is no separate redressal mechanism for the vendors as such. “They can always come to the CAC if there is any problem,” he asserted.
Sheela Devi, Motilal’ss wife and ‘Bread Bajji Aunty’ for students, says it is not as simple as it sounds – “I have given many applications and attended meetings too with the CAC. Apart from hollow promises, nothing is delivered.” She analyses that the administration knows that they will continue even without the facilities. Since they are concerned about the students, they have not resorted to extreme measures like abruptly closing down the shop until now.
On top of not facilitating their business, the administration sometimes creates problems as well. In spite of paying electricity bills promptly, Sheela’s connection in the canteen near F Hostel was cut off citing a reason that ‘there is no requirement.’ Her customers have to now drink their tea in darkness after dusk. “There is clear partiality for some vendors while some like us are pushed around. The dhobi stationed near us pays no rent – yet she gets a room, electricity and water. We are ready to pay and still are not granted even the basic facilities,” she says.
“We have no direct say in how the CAC functions. It is an autonomous body. It is completely up to them as to which vendor should be on campus and what facilities they should get,” Estate Section Officer Mr. S Vijayakumar commented.
However, he also said that if students feel strongly that a particular vendor needs to be given more facilities or permission to diversify the business, they can file a request with the Estate Department in the Admin block. This adds value to the vendor’s case.
Sheela and Moti also concludes saying that a little bit of initiative from the Students Union can help them a lot. Of course, they know such complaining does not help much. They have to work against all odds to send kids to school and feed them.
Let us do the least we can for the family that keeps our lives running with functional bicycles and tasty bread bajjis – stand and speak for them!
