The University of Mysore is mulling over giving a common contract for running canteens in its 17 hostels, including 15 on Manasagangotri campus, instead of awarding hostel-wise contracts.
Though the hostels had also been opened with the reopening of the colleges and the campus on Monday, hostel mess facilities were yet to resume since the previous contracts had expired and the university had invited offers for running the canteens for the current academic year.
Vice-Chancellor G. Hemantha Kumar said the University was considering awarding a single contract for running the hostel canteens for better supervision.
“We are hoping that the contracts would be awarded before August 1 since the mess facilities have to resume with students permitted to return to their respective hostels with the start of offline classes,” he said.
The University had temporarily closed down its students’ hostels in view of the second wave of COVID-19 scare. The students and research scholars staying in the hostels were asked to return to their hometowns as a precautionary measure against the spread of the virus and also because of the announcement of lockdown. The 17 hostels house nearly 4,000 students and research scholars.
The University had earlier requested the government to ask the Department of Social Welfare to operate their hostels as well since some of its students had taken shelter in those hostels. Their reopening would benefit the students to pursue their courses.
In the previous wave, the hostels reopened after a gap of nearly eight months and resumed services, including mess, in full capacity with the recommencement of offline classes for the first-year PG students from January 29 this year. But, within a couple of months, they were shut again following the second wave of the pandemic.
The students had been asked to follow all COVID-19 safety precautions and instructions in this regard had been issued to the wardens of each hostel. “The University will strictly follow the SOPs,” the VC said.
