Unhygienic drinking water, missing doors in women's washrooms, naked high-tension wires are a few of the many ailments that students of All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) have been living with as they wait for a promised new hostel building for postgraduate students at Masjid Moth.
The construction of the building, which has been in the pipeline for the past seven years, has been pushed back once again, with the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) returning the AIIMS 2011 masterplan. The civic agency, which had received the revised copy of the plan on December 28, has asked for more information.
Students, meanwhile, have sent repeated complaints to the authorities, hoping for redress.
In September last year, faecal coliform bacteria were found in samples of the institute's drinking water supply in the boys' hostel and the swimming pool — the water pipeline has, however, not been examined till now by the Engineering department.
"Engineering personnel came and cleaned the tanks, but the drinking water is still visibly muddy. This effectively means that sewage water has been coming in contact with the drinking water for over four months now," said Dr Debjyoti Karmakar, president of the AIIMS Resident Doctors' Association (RDA).
The hostel's drinking water purifying plant has been dysfunctional for the past two years.
Bigger problems lie at the women's hostel, where the washrooms either do not have latches on the doors or do not have doors at all. While new doors were installed in October last year, students said they fell apart within a month.
"It is barbaric. Not only do the doors not shut, most of the lights don't work either. Dogs roam inside the bathrooms and it is terrible to use them at night," said a woman resident doctor.
Getting hot water for bathing is another issue, as most of the geysers are not working. "Two men's hostels have solar heaters. This year, despite repeated reminders, the heaters were activated only at the end of December," said another resident doctor.
According to Dr Karmakar, six doctors have complained of dog bites inside hostel premises in the last six months.
High-tension naked wires, lack of parking facility and the non-working "free Internet Wi-Fi" facility also feature on the list of complaints.
"We were promised special parking stickers months ago, but that never took off. At first faculty members started using the space, but now even patients park their vehicles in our allotted space," said Dr Karmakar, talking about the reserved parking facility for resident doctors.
Meanwhile, the 1,700-bed hostel site at Masjid Moth continues to lie deserted. After five years of non-activity, the masterplan was first sent to the NDMC in October 2009. After additional information was sought, the institute sent a revised copy on December 28 last year, which has now been labelled inadequate.
NDMC officials said they have asked the AIIMS administration to provide additional inputs in their proposal, such as the FAR ratio of the buildings and ground coverage. "In the past, AIIMS built structures without proper clearance of the building plans."
AIIMS RDA representative Dr Bhaumik Shah has now filed an RTI with the NDMC to get details of the delays in the promised new hostel.
At present, 70 per cent men and 80 per cent women doctors have to wait for around 20 months to get a hostel seat, even as the residency programme itself runs for three years. "We are called at odd hours due to the nature of our job, and it is difficult for women who rent places far away from the hospital to report for duty at night. There have been repeated complaints of eve-teasing," said Dr Karmakar. In October last year, a junior resident was beaten up and robbed while returning to his rented house in Janakpuri.
While the AIIMS administration refused to comment on record, senior administrative officials told Newsline that the delay in the Masjid Moth hostel is due to the "finicky" nature of the civic body. "AIIMS is a very old institution. A lot of structures have come up, which may not necessarily meet strict building requirements, but it is not practical to bring them down. We have now been asked to furnish details of all existing buildings, which is resulting in additional delay," said a source.
For the new masterplan 2014, the NDMC has asked AIIMS to submit the FAR of all its buildings. "Once the submission is done, we can clear the plans and forward them to Delhi Urban Art Commission," said a senior official of the NDMC. The official also highlighted the fact that part of the AIIMS land in Gautam Nagar belonged to the MCD.
"The process of giving sanction to the masterplan is complicated, but it has recently been sorted out. The NDMC can now clear the building plans on the land on behalf of the MCD," he said.
IndianExpress