Nearly 200 students, who are not associated with the University of Pune, but are still living in the hostels, will be evicted
Proposing stringent action against ‘squatters’, the Universityof Pune (UoP) is all set to evict around 200 students, who are illegally occupying the varsity’s hostel rooms, while pretending to be students. UoP officials say they have drawn up a strategy to clear these students, who apart from a security threat are also an extra burden on the infrastructural facilities at the campus.u00a0
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Taking the lead to purge the university’s hostels of illegal occupants, UoP’s Vice-Chancellor Dr W N Gade said, “There are two types of students occupying the varsity hostels’ illegally. One are those who have secured admission in UoP, but have unfortunately not been allotted a room in the hostel due to the limited availability. The others are those who are no longer associated with varsity and are still residing here for many months. Our task is to pinpoint the later category and ask them to vacate the rooms immediately,” said Gade.
The UoP campus has a totala of 16 hostel buildings – 8 for girls and equal number for boys. Presently, the official strength of girls is 1,134 and that of boys is 1,050. “Due to strict security measures in the girl hostels, not a illegal occupant has been identified there. The main problem is at the boys hostel,” said B R Shejwal, UoP’s hostel rector.u00a0
“Students who don’t get admission in the hostel due to space constraint can reside as an official guest by paying the hostel fees. Right now the records indicate that some 200 guests are residents in the hostels. But besides them nearly 200 people who are associated with the UoP are still occupying a room illegally. We are going to act against them,” Shejwal told.
“I am soon going to call a meeting with all stakeholders in this regard. Heavy fines would be imposed and our officials will ensure that these illegal occupants vacate the hostel rooms immediately,” Gade added.
Aviation course will take off, assures V-C
Although the fate of the newly-launched MTech Aviation course by the UoP hangs in the balance, since from the batch of 20 students, only five or six have been able to pay the first instalment of fees, Vice-Chancellor Dr W N Gade has assured that course will be carried out. “Students who have enroled for the M. Tech Aviation course are finding it difficult, as the fees of the course is in euros and when converted to rupees it amounts to around Rs 60 lakh. But even if 12 to 13 students pay the initial admission fees, which will certainly take place in the coming days, we will go ahead with the course,” Gade said. u00a0