July 12: Private hostels are far from being a home away from home for students in the city.

At a time when private hostels are mushrooming all over the city, the health wing of Guwahati Municipal Corporation (GMC) has found that most of them lag far behind in adhering to hygiene norms and security arrangements.

A medical officer in the GMC said the corporation recently conducted a survey in 90 private hostels and found that the boarders are served low quality rice and dal. Neither are the snacks served for breakfast and evening tea up to the mark.

“Though the number of private hostels in the city must has crossed 500, the GMC’s survey was confined to hostels having trade licences. Many hostels are in operation without acquiring trade licences from the GMC. If the quality of food served in hostels with licences is poor, one can imagine the situation in the rest of the hostels set up without adhering to GMC norms,” he said.

Refusing to divulge the names of the erring hostels, the medical officer said the GMC has asked such hostels to improve the quality of food immediately. He said the GMC would cancel the trade licence of such hostels if found serving unhealthy food.

The GMC is already conducting a survey to find out the exact number of private hostels and paying guest accommodations and to facilitate the checking of each such institution. Many people are setting up hostels without licences to evade paying taxes to the GMC and skip other official formalities.

According to sources, the need for private hostels has increased considerably, taking into account the large numbers of students who come into the city every year for higher education.

“Many persons are taking advantage of the situation and thus serving poor quality food to save expenses. The students, too, rarely complain about the food, having no other option,” a source said.

Another reason for the mushrooming of private hostels is the pathetic condition in the hostels of educational institutions like Cotton College.

Parents prefer sending their children to private hostels rather than the college hostels, where diseases are allegedly rampant.“My son lived in Cotton College hostel a year back. He suffered from jaundice last year because of poor drinking water and food. So I shifted my son to a private hostel,” said Diganta Saikia, a government official.

Many worried parents demanded that the government should come up with clear-cut rules and regulations including adequate security arra-ngements in private hostels.