Students face difficulties getting daily meals due to strict restrictions

Rakesh Kulkarni and his roommates staying in a PG hostel at Sadashiv peth are facing difficulties finding a dinner meal due to the newly imposed restrictions in Pune district, followed by the statewide strict restrictions and the weekend lockdown

Rakesh Kulkarni and his roommates staying in a PG hostel at Sadashiv peth are facing difficulties finding a dinner meal due to the newly imposed restrictions in Pune district, followed by the statewide strict restrictions and the weekend lockdown.

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From Saturday, night curfew began in Pune from 6 pm and the challenges for most students like Kulkarni who have arrived in the city for studies rose.

As most of them are dependent on hotels and food mess, they used to get a tiffin or have dinner at a hotel but now as the curfew starts at 6 pm, they are unable to go out and get the meals.

“Yesterday when I went to my regular mess to get tiffin on Tilak road, I was stopped by one policeman and he shouted at me and told me to go back to room. We are here for studying and now our parents also fear to allow us to stay in Pune. It has been already a difficult situation for us from the last one-month, delayed exams, financial burden and now these strict restrictions,” said Kulkarni.

In Pune city, there are different types of private coaching classes, right from school level boards’ classes, 10th and 12th board subject classes, entrance exams classes and competitive exams classes. As Pune is known as an educational hub in the country thousands of students from across the country and from foreign countries come to Pune. They join these classes or go to study circles for studying, stay in PG rooms or rent flats and also eat outside in hotels and mess. So, an entire financial eco-system is dependent on these private classes and study circles.

Prajakta Dahiphale who stays in a rented flat in the Bharati Vidyapeeth area is caught in a similar situation.

Dahiphale said, “As we are students, we are all dependent for our daily meals on either the hotels or regular mess. We do cook at home, but it is difficult to do it daily and now going out in the evening to bring tiffin is just not working out for us and we cannot afford to order online food daily and waste our money in it.”