A working women hostel without women in the Himachal Pradesh Agriculture University

PALAMPUR: A Working Women Hostel known as “Ganesh Bhavan” constructed at the cost of rupees one crore by the H.P. Agriculture University has failed to attract even a single women.

Despite spending huge amounts the building was lying vacant. Despite best efforts of the H.P. Agriculture University no working women had opted for the accommodation in this building. The university authorities had left with no alternative except to change the use of this building. Now the university was using this building a make-shift accommodation-cum-guest house.

Information gathered revealed that the government had provided funds over rupees one crore to the university five years back for the construction of working women hostel in the university campus at par with other university. However it took over four years for the completion of this building because of official bottlenecks and internal problems of the university, by the time the women who were interested to have accommodation in this building withdrew their options.

A senior officer of the HPAU said that delay in the completion of this building was one of the major reason that today no working women was interested to shift to this building despite the fact it had all modern facilities. However, the university authorities were tightlipped to disclose at what level the delay occurred and who was responsible.

Meanwhile a senior officer of the state government when contacted at Shmla said that government would look into the matter. He said the funds were allocated for the construction of working women hostel on the demand of the university authorities. If there was no requirement for this hostel, university authorities should not have asked for funds. As regards change in its use, it could be done only with the permission of the government and university authorities should first intimate the factual position to the state government.

Ravinder Sood

A senior journalist from Palampur.