Bhubaneswar, July 25: Boarders of the girls' hostel of BJB (Autonomous) College here today alleged that they were being served food of poor quality and staged a demonstration against the college authorities.

The college has four hostels - one of them is for the girl students.

The students also threatened to boycott hostel food till the management concerned took steps to address their problems.

The students gathered in front of their hostel gates, raising slogans against the college management.

Arts student Neha Mohanty, who stays in the hostel, said the food was cooked in unhygienic conditions, and since the past few weeks the students had been skipping meals. "We often find insects in the food served to us. A few days back, we had even found a grasshopper from rice. Spotting centipedes in our meal has become a common affair here," another student alleged.

Around 250 students stay at the BJB hostels.

Several other students said that on many occasions, they had complained to the officials concerned about the lack of basic amenities in the hostel, but no action had been taken.

Commerce student Monalisa Behera, who is also a hostel boarder, said: "There is no proper drinking water facility. Besides, the hostel has poor lighting facility." The students alleged that the hostel rooms were not lit up properly and occasional power cuts hampered their studies.

College principal Nawaz Hassan said the hostel authorities were given strict orders to discard any food item that had been found infested. "The cooks in the hostel kitchen have been asked to discard food items that are found infested with insects or worms and always keep the food covered once the cooking is completed," he said.

In a related development, some students demanded that they wanted to have their breakfast outside the college, and the authorities had agreed to that. As they have become concerned about the poor quality of food in the hostel, they prefer to have their breakfast from outside.

"Those who are willing to have breakfast in the hostel canteen to save time will be served food," said the principal.

Sources said a generator would be installed in the hostel this week to help the students study during power cuts. Also, a deep bore well would be dug to address water shortage on the premises.