Kohat University of Science students asked to vacate hostels

Source Dawn

The administration of Kohat University of Science and Technology (Kust) has asked the students to vacate two hostels before Sept 6 otherwise it will not be responsible for any loss of luggage.


University sources told Dawn that the administration had decided to give two hostels -- B-1 and B-2 -- to a private contractor, who had been authorised to fix the monthly rent.

The students of several unions contacted Dawn and said that they would not vacate the hostels at any cost because the administration was already charging exorbitant annual tuition fee and now wanted to put more financial burden on the students.

Earlier, the university provost in a press release had informed the students to voluntarily vacate these hostels for necessary repair and whitewash.He said that after Eid holidays the hostels would be handed over to a private contractor who would make fresh allotments. He also warned that if the hostels were not vacated before the deadline, the university administration would remove the belongings of the students by force and it would not be responsible for any kind of damage to the luggage.

On the other hand, the students alleged that the private contractor was not being brought to improve the living conditions and solve their problem, but in fact the administration wanted to generate handsome profit from its hostels by privatising them, which was not in the interest of poor students.

They expressed the fear that many students would not be able to bear extra burden of the revised rent and might be forced to discontinue their studies.

It had been learnt that the increase in annual fee of the Kohat Medical College and Kust had been made following the announcement of 60 per cent cut by the Higher Education Commission in varsity allocations. The universities had been asked to immediately halt new constructions and projects and delay the running projects by three years.

Kust, established in an old building of the commerce college, bore the major brunt as it had to stop construction of hostels and classrooms. As a result more than 50 per cent students of the medical college and Kust had to hire rooms in private guest houses and hotels at their own expense.

The students belonging to well-to-do families were living in furnished guest houses while the poor lot had to hire accommodation in dirty business centres of Kohat like chicken market and live as neighbours with the eunuch community in Teerah Bazaar.Dawn