Trouble continues at the hostel of Daulat Ram College

NEW DELHI: Trouble continues at the hostel of Daulat Ram College with a batch of students launching a signature campaign on Monday demanding "immediate and appropriate action" against the hostel-in-charge and warden.
The students claim that those who spearheaded the protest demanding permission to use mobile phones and laptops in the hostel last year are being "victimized" during the readmission process.They say they and their parents were made to sit through "humiliating interviews" and sign undertakings stating they had no problems with the hostel and their protests were unjustified. Most of those facing problems are second or third-year students. They had put up posters across the campus but those were ripped by another group of students who said they were satisfied with the hostel.
Though some students say they were interviewed multiple times before being allowed seats, hostel-in-charge, Dr Sushma Tandon, says there was only one "interaction" with the parents and that as part of the standard re-admission process. "We didn't take any undertaking from anyone. All the students had to sign was an affidavit declaring she is aware of the UGC's anti-ragging regulations," she says.
However, on Monday, the protestors managed to collect 800 signatures from students using the hostel as well as day-scholars. "We didn't want it to be just about the 180 girls in the hostel. Right now, the problems are with readmission. But later the girls will face problems like being made to vacate during short vacations or being made to move right before exams," says one student. The DRC Teachers' Association met on Tuesday but as one student puts it, "Nothing fruitful came out of that. Teachers wanted to know why a students' issue was being brought up in a teachers' meeting."
The students also have problems with certain rules mentioned in the prospectus. One allows hostel authorities to fine a student found outside her room after 10 pm, Rs. 20. "This has never ever been implemented," argues Tandon. Students concede that but say they have been made to sign an "assessment." "If you get three assessments, you won't be given a seat next year," says a student. But this assessment signing too allegedly began after the November 2011 protest. "Rather than sign undertakings and confront her, some of us have moved out. I share my paying-guest accommodation with three others. All of us stayed in the hostel for the first two years," says a final year student. "I went for one interview. The hostel-in-charge told my mother I wasn't fit to stay in a hostel, that she's never any girl as ill-behaved as me and that girls like me use ipills," says another, "I didn't go back."