Aurobindo wages battle for space

Even as the Delhi University gears up for a new academic session, the tale of Sri Aurobindo College remains the same — a painful struggle for existence in the absence of basic amenities.

Not only does its Malviya Nagar campus wear a dilapidated look, the college shares half its premises with a government school. If that was not enough, then sample this: The college grants admission under the sports quota, but doesn’t have a sports field.

“We use stadiums or parks when we need to practice for tournaments,” said Vivek Chaudhary, head, Department of Physical Education.

“I had earlier converted some unused land in the campus into a makeshift sports field but, as the number of students and courses increased, the land was utilised for classrooms,” he added.

“The college is in a very bad shape and worst is the absence of a sports field even though we have admissions through the sports quota,” said a student.

The college was granted land in 1992 for setting up a campus in Vasant Kunj but a court later ruled that the land was under the green belt. “We have been applying for land for quite some time. Last year we were offered land in Shalimar Bagh (following a court order) but we declined as we want to be based in south Delhi,” said Bimlesh Yadav, principal of Aurobindo's evening college.

“Despite the absence of a field, the handball and athletics teams are doing very well. The dedicated ones practiced at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium before it was shut down for the Commonwealth Games.

“We had filed an application with the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) demanding allocation of land. Following this, land was allotted in Lado Sarai recently through another court order but the DDA refused to give clearance as the land use in that area has changed,” she said.

Neemo Dhar, PRO, DDA, said: “We can do something only when we get an application regarding allotment of land from the college.”