Solar geysers stall at PU, boarders shiver

CHANDIGARH: At a time when the UT Administration has its focus on using solar energy, the solar geysers at Panjab University hostels are not working. Because of the limited supply of water, students have to wait hours for a hot bath.

The hostels get water only 5-to-10 in the morning and 6-to-9 in the evening. A girl from hostel 3 said: “This is why we must have our solar geysers working at those hours. Their breaking down has increasing our troubles. Sun is a good source of renewable energy and, being an educational institution, we should use it more. Forget about setting an example, the university is not even catering to the needs of its students.”

She said that winter is on and if the geysers are not repaired, the students will find it tough to manage. PU campus student council president Jashan Kamboj said: “Many students have come to us with this problem and I have also taken it to the authorities concerned. But these appliances were funded by the previous (Parkash Singh Badal) government of Punjab and installed by a private company, which the PU authorities say has declined to accept the maintenance responsibility. However, as contractor, it must look after maintenance.”

Kamboj added that the council will take up the matter with dean of student welfare (DSW) Emanual Nahar again, since the hostel wardens have also complained about the defunct solar geysers. When the Students Organisation of India (SOI) affiliated to the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) had won the campus elections in 2015, the Badal government had given the PU money to install solar geysers in its hostels. DSW Emanual Nahar said he has instructed all the wardens to label the non-functional electric geysers for urgent repair, while for the solar geysers, he will call a meeting of the wardens to seek their suggestions of what can be done to solve the problem.

Source: timesofindia.indiatimes