No Panjab University hostel for freshers using cars

CHANDIGARH - Freshers wanting hostel room in the Panjab University here will have to give up the comfort of their cars. Pitching in for eco-friendly bicycles, the university administration has decided new students with cars will not be given accommodation on the sprawling campus.

Panjab University (PU) Vice-Chancellor R.C. Sobti said here Thursday that the university was set to become a role model in checking environmental degradation through complete pollution control.

Pointing out that the campus was smoke free already, Sobti said: “To take a lead in checking air pollution, the university will encourage use of bicycles and hostel accommodation would not be provided to the first-year students of any class having cars.”

“The university has decided to give interest-free loans to all students and staff members who would like to buy bicycles,” the vice-chancellor added.

However, not everyone was impressed with the move. Some students termed it “impractical”.

“Students will claim while applying for hostel that they do not have cars and later make excuses that the vehicle belongs to a friend or someone else. Who will keep a check on them on a daily basis?” asked final year student Abhishek.

PU faculty members added that the university had unsuccessfully tried similar steps in the past.

“In 2007, they did a drama by giving bicycles to senior university officials with great fanfare. That experiment failed and the cycles are now rusting away. Later, the VC banned all motor vehicles on the first Monday of every month by declaring PU as a no-vehicle zone. No one even talks of these things now,” a senior faculty member, requesting anonymity, said.