Sunday, November 2, 2014

No hostel facilities will be given to second and third year undergrads — SB


Says no such precedent



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by Saman Indrajith

Higher Education Minister S. B. Dissanayake yesterday said that no hostel facilities would be provided to second and third year undergraduates in universities.

"The second and third year undergraduates were never provided with hostels in the past, they are not given hostels today and would not be given the facility in the future. We provide hostel facilities only to first and last year undergraduates," he said.

Responding to a question raised by UNP Ratnapura District MP Dunesh Gankanda, the minister said there were 94,494 undergraduates in the universities including the Open University, of them 36,121 had been provided with hostel facilities. Except for the students enrolled in the Open University only around 5,000 undergraduates remain without hostel facilities, the minister said.

He said that 30 new hostels have been built to accommodate 12,000 undergraduates. Thirty more new hostels too would be constructed soon.

MP Gankanda: The Mahinda Chinthana manifesto promises hostel facilities to each and every undergraduate. Why won’t the government provide hostel facilities to the second and third year undergraduates?

Minister Dissanayake: No hostel facilities had been given to the second and third year students of universities. Not in the past, not in the present not in the future. It is our intention to introduce university village system for the second and third year undergraduates, who mostly live in nearby houses on rent. We plan to help the owners of those houses to increase the number of rooms in their houses.

MP Gankanda: After beating Sabaragamuwa undergraduates recently you went on record saying that you knew how to treat them if there was no election coming up. If your government goons had smashed the heads of undergraduates and set their makeshift satyagraha stages on fire with an election around the corner we cannot even imagine how would you treat them not non-election time. Could you explain?

Minister Dissanayake: "I can very well, but it is not relevant to the question you asked."