Communication gap8217; irks students

VADODARA, March 28: Communication gap of a different kind seems to be bothering a majority of inmates putting up in the 16 hostels of the...

VADODARA, March 28: Communication gap of a different kind seems to be bothering a majority of inmates putting up in the 16 hostels of the MS University. They allege that inspite of the hostels being equipped with telephones, they are never informed whenever their folks wanted to contact them on phone.

According to the practice, people who wish to contact their wards call up the warden8217;s office. The warden then passes this message to the peons who in turn inform that particular inmate about it.

But according to Ranjan mathur, an inmate of M A Hall at Pratapganj, they are never informed, despite the fact that there are two telephones in the hostel.

Most of these students, who hail from other states, say they have to depend on the mails and the telephone for keeping in touch with their folks. And with the examinations beginning next month, the number of incoming calls also increased.

8220;The peons of the hostel sometimes pass on the message. But even they have to be informed about it so that they can pass on the message,8221; says Aakash Shukla, an inmate of the S P Hall.

According to him, not all inmates are extended this kind of privilege. 8220;We are never informed about people calling in our absence,8221; he claims, adding that his parents have now stopped calling him and sent him extra money so that he could call them up every month.

Arvind Shah of T K Gajjar Hall claims that the peons are generally helpful. Though most of them did not understand Hindi or English, they usually left a written message for most inmates from the little that they could make out from the calls, he says.

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The inmates of the Tagore Hall however claim that authorities never even tried to find out if the particular inmate was present in the hostel. One of the students of this hostel, Mahesh Pandey says, 8220;We do not blame the wardens, as it is not possible for them to call the inmate every time. But at times there are no peons in the hostel due to which the problem arises.8221;

The inmates claim to have also submitted a joint memorandum to the chief warden of the hostel regarding this problem.

When contacted, Chief warden of hostels N L Singh said, 8220;All these days there was only one telephone, which was installed in the warden8217;s quarter. But now a second phone had been installed in a few hostels to just receive calls.8221;

He added that there were plans to install such phones in other hostels as well and as soon as it was implemented the numbers would be given to the students.

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According to Singh, though the peons were responsible for this problem, he said that even students too should make sure that they were present in the hostel when their folks called them up.

The names of the students have been changed to protect their identity.