Osmania University hostellers give rooms on rent for Rs 3,000 per month

Hyderabad: Some students of Osmania University are renting out their hostel rooms. According to information from sources, that was corroborated by university officials, some OU students, especially those pursuing PhD who stay in the university hostel for three to five years, are renting their rooms to outsiders for around Rs 2,000  to Rs 3,000 a month. Food to such outsiders is not a problem as hostel inmates help them get food from the mess or the illegal boarders cook in the hostel. Sources said that this trend is rampant in the girls’ as well as the boys’ hostels.

The 16 hostels on the campus, which were built to accommodate around 13,000 students, house somewhere around 30,000. The excess 17,000 students, as per university officials, are a burden on the university's finances as well as on the infrastructure. A senior university official said, “If a hostel has 800 students living instead of the allotted 400, issues like water problems and choking of sewer lines are bound to occur. The infrastructure was not built for so many students.”

An example of the burden on infrastructure is the Old PG hostel where students are complaining of a RCC water tank, which is in a precarious condition. When contacted, a concerned official said, “The tank was closed for usage and new tanks were provided for water storage. However, as demand for water increased due to large number of illegal boarders, students connected the closed tank with the water connection and now it is in a bad state. We will be replacing it with a synthetic tank.”

Another senior OU official said, “The high electricity bills are a problem. As the thousands of regular and their illegally staying friends use equipment like induction stoves, electric heaters and even TV sets with satellite TV connections, the electricity bill usually comes around Rs 10 crore per month, nearly half of which is due to the hostels.” None of the officials wanted to be quoted fearing backlash from students with political leanings as there have been attacks on teachers earlier in the university.