Jamia panel to probe charges of ‘unhygienic’ mess food

New Delhi: Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI) has constituted a four-member committee to probe allegations by some students that a chameleon was found in food served at one of its hostel messes, even as the university said government agencies will be involved in the investigation

New Delhi: Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI) has constituted a four-member committee to probe allegations by some students that a chameleon was found in food served at one of its hostel messes, even as the university said government agencies will be involved in the investigation.

The move comes after videos, purportedly showing a chameleon in the food, surfaced on social media on Sunday. Previously, students of JMI’s Jammu and Kashmir Girls’ Hostel staged a protest outside the university’s Centenary Gate over the quality of food served in the mess, alleging that meals were of poor quality and that flies, bugs and pieces of glass were found in some of them.

The protesters demanded termination of the current mess contractor’s contract, deployment of only female staff in the mess, no action against those who protested, and the resignation of the provost and the J&K Girls’ Hostel warden. The protest was called off on September 12.

“JMI yesterday constituted a four-member fact-finding committee to investigate a CCTV video footage concerning the mess of one of its school hostels and to establish the facts surrounding an incident in which allegations were raised about the presence of a chameleon in a student’s bowl of pulses,” JMI chief public relations officer Saima Saeed said in a statement dated September 14.

The JMI administration has also decided to monitor the functioning of hostel messes and kitchens round the clock by installing additional CCTV cameras across all its hostels.