Delhi Water minister Kapil Mishra today met DU Vice Chancellor Yogesh Tyagi and demanded immediate withdrawal of notices slapped on some of the inmates by the varsity's Undergraduate Hostel for Girls (UGHG) administration for protesting against erratic water supply in a hostel about a month ago.
Mishra also wrote a letter to Tyagi, saying the hostel administration's act was of "reprehensible, inexcusable and oppressive" nature.
"Met DU VC, he has assured me that notices to hostel girls will be withdrawn," Mishra said in a tweet.
Over 200 students of UGHG had staged a dharna on April 23 which went on till 2.30 AM the next day in protest against erratic supply of water to the hostel.
Mishra, who also heads Delhi Jal Board, had met the protesting students and addressed them at around midnight.
Water supply was restored on April 25.
A month after the protests, parents of some of the inmates received letters sent by the hostel administration.
The letters said the act of girls was in "violation of rules and discipline" laid down in the bulletin of information of the hostel, which the students and their parents had undertaken to abide by at the time of admission.
In his letter to DU VC, Mishra said "Has Delhi University's womens' hostel along with its complete lack of administration which deprived the students their right to water, also waived their fundamental right to freedom of speech and expression?
"Isn't there any responsibility of the university and its hostel to ensure basic facilities and not make students' lives difficult if not comfortable?" he said.
Demanding "immediate" withdrawal of the notices, he urged the VC to ensure that such incidents do not take place on the DU campus or its hostels.
