Soon, ’pest control’ at varsity hostels

Realising fear of discovery of their 'parasite' friends behind students' refusal to vacate rooms for fumigation, UoP now focuses on smoking out illegal residents

Soon, 'pest control' at varsity hostels

Realising fear of discovery of their 'parasite' friends behind students' refusal to vacate rooms for fumigation, UoP now focuses on smoking out illegal residents

Weed them out: Known as parasites in student parlance, illegal hostel
occupants will no longer be tolerated, say UoP officials. File pic

"In UoP student parlance, these outsiders are called parasites. Students who allow them to stay in the rooms are called hosts. The varsity allows only two to three students in each room, but the quarters are often inhabited by at least five to six. This causes overcrowding and a scramble for access to toilets and water coolers. These parasites and their hosts don't allow the UoP to undertake pest control measures as they don't want to vacate the rooms," said a student. Another student said that the real reason for not vacating the rooms was the fear of being refused entry. "Maybe the parasites are scared they will be denied re-entry once they are detected and that's why they are creating a fuss," he said.

Bhaskar Shejwal, chief vector of UoP hostels, said that strict security measures would be employed to evacuate the 'parasites'. "Illegal occupancy is an old issue but has assumed more importance after a few recent events. We had a meeting last week and have come up with a lot of measures to tighten security. Installing CCTV cameras at the entry and exit gates, deploying round-the-clock guards, with more watchmen at night, conducting surprise and random checks on rooms and enforcing photo identification of inmates strictly are some of the measures being discussed," said Shejwal.

He said the UoP was shut until July 1, following which majority of the students would return to the hostels. "In the past we have been successful in eliminating the problem of illegal occupants from the girls hostels by tightening the security, and we are confident of doing the same in the boys hostels as well," said Shejwal.

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