Mysuru:  Accusing University of Mysore (UoM) authorities of turning a blind eye to their persistent demand for better civic amenities and food, hundreds of inmates (men) from all hostel blocks in the Manasagangothri campus of UoM, staged a snap stir in front of Kuvempu statue at the campus entry gate on Bogadi Road here this morning.

Maintaining that the hostel blocks lacked civic amenities such as drinking water, hot water, sanitation etc. and the food served to them in the hostel mess was of poor quality, the students alleged that many windows in some blocks had no shutters, which posed a serious threat to their safety.

The hostel inmates claimed that they suffered from mosquito, bed bug and stray dog menace because of poor infrastructure and demanded that research scholars be given mess facility, maintenance of quality in food, regular cleaning of toilets and installation of a solar system.

The hostel inmates also took strong objection to Police presence in the campus and frequent whistle blowing by security guards.

Following the snap stir, the Manasagangothri campus from Bogadi Road was shut. On learning about the snap stir, Varsity Registrars Prof. R. Shivappa and Prof. Mahadevan and Student Welfare Officer Ramaswamy visited the spot and tried to convince the hostel inmates to withdraw the stir.

But the hostelites, who refused to withdraw the stir, demanded the Vice-Chancellor (VC) to come to the spot. Later, VC Prof. G. Hemantha Kumar arrived at the spot and assured the students of addressing all the issues stage-by-stage in a month, following which the protest was withdrawn.

University of Mysore Research Students Association President Mahadevaiah, Dalit Student leaders M. Sandesh, Sosale Mahesh and others led the stir.