The allocation of hostels at Panjab university has been a troublesome process for the students even though the allocation through the web portal had started in June this year.
The students have been troubled and are claiming that the process is taking longer than it should have. Sebika, a second-year student of MSc Geology from Assam who still hasn’t got a hostel room on campus said, “The portal is just another place to register your name for the hostel. After that, we have to run around campus submitting letters and asking different authorities to allot us a hostel room”.
The web portal was used by the students from the latest batch who had to register for a room in the hostel after they had secured the admission. The new web portal for the allocation of the hostel was introduced to ensure transparency since many students believed that the allocation was done by unfair means.
Typically, a student needs to register with the online portal to get a hostel room, the student has to then struggle with getting signatures from various authorities and submitting applications and letters.
The online portal currently is not equipped to show where a student is on the waiting list or declare the names of students granted a hostel room. Once rejected, the students then appear in front of the Dean of Student Welfare and request for a hostel room. The last stop-point for students is the hostel warden.
The Dean of Student Welfare Emanual Nahar told a leading paper, “The portal is new and has its problems, but anything new takes time to become functional”.
“There is a merit list for students in the general category and that is what is used as a waiting list for hostel allocation. There is a separate list for reserved categories which is maintained for each department. There is no discrepancy in allocation. Students just have to be patient with the new portal,” says Nahar.