Days after the Akhil Bharatiya Vidhyarthi Parishad’s (ABVP’s) unit at Central University of Gujarat (CUG), Vadodara, urged the university administration to incorporate non-vegetarian food options in the hostel mess menu, its state unit Sunday distanced itself from the matter citing “ no mandate” for such demand.
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“ABVP officially distances itself from this demand. It is a fact that we have our karyakarta (workers) in the northeast and states in the south like Kerala, who eat non-vegetarian food, but our official stand is not that non-vegetarian food should be allowed at the CUG campus too. Raising such a demand was a mistake made by our workers at CUG. We were just trying to urge administration to cater to the food choices of students from the Northeast and Kerala and did not want it to be a mandatory part of the mess menu,” ABVP Gujarat secretary Samarth Bhatt told The Indian Express.
Earlier this week, the ABVP unit of CUG, led by its president Munna Kumar, who hails from Bihar, submitted a representation to university registrar H B Patel, demanding inclusion of non-vegetarian food items in the university mess menu.
“We, on behalf of ABVP, would like to bring to the notice of CUG administration the discrepancies in the recent tender issued for the CUG mess menu. Due to lack of students’ representation in the new mess menu there are discrepancies. At least twice a week non-vegetarian food should be there in the new mess menu as CUG has 80-90 per cent students from outside Gujarat. There is no mention of egg and fruits in the breakfast which is important to have everyday. Looking at all these issues we from ABVP demand from administration to remove all these issues at the earliest so that students do not face injustice in the future,” the representation submitted to the CUG Registrar stated.
CUG Registrar Patel told this paper, “I received the representation with these demands two days back. The tender for the new mess is out and so far non-veg food has not been incorporated, nor was it done during the previous tenders of the mess menu. The administration has not taken any decision as we need to consult with the office of the Provost and the DSW.”
Authorities stated that around 550 students currently live in the hostels of CUG. The university last year started shifting from Gandhinagar’s Sector 29 to its new campus in Kundhela in Vadodara’s Dabhoi district.
“Earlier, keeping in mind the diversity of students joining from various states, CUG would allow its students to have non-veg food. However, that was arranged by students who had been staying outside the Gandhinagar campus, since the temporary campus (Gandhinagar) did not have hostel facilities,” the ABVP’s CUG unit chief told The Indian Express.
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So to cater to the demands of students with different preferences such a representation was made, Kumar added.
Sources also revealed that following a meeting of the ABVP workers at the university last week where this issue was raised, the representation was submitted without allegedly “communicating or consulting with the state unit”.
However, asked to comment on the matter, ABVP’s state secretary Samarth Bhatt said, “As an organisation, there is no official mandate for this demand for non-vegetarian food. However, CUG has a diverse campus. The (ABVP) workers there submitted the memorandum with an intention to take forward the earlier provisions (where students could arrange food as per their preferences).”
Students, meanwhile, also claimed that since the campus is far away from the main city, there are “very limited food choices” available to them.
