For those who want a point by point rebuttal!

Read the previous post as a reply to some of the things that are being raised by the readers of this blog. Thank you to all of you. Let's move on now to an answer to some of the things raised in the memo and through the questions of some concerned people raised in the comments sections of this blog.

NEW BUILDING
The building is taking long because of some very sad state of affairs, a situation for which the VC cannot be held responsible, except as a scapegoat of circumstances. According to what we students know, the building project had been started by the pre-Shrivastava regime. In that regime, the "land" allocated by the govt. for the building was a POND, a stretch of water. After much struggle, the location of the allocated land was changed. The VC might have had his personal achievements to have an indelible name but he was the one who got "land" instead of "water" to build the building. Next, the contractors, Nagarjuna Construction Co. which are based in Hyderabad had been booked for the construction by the pre-Shrivastava regime. Obviously, the money of the university is getting siphoned in the process of maintaining the cost of that construction and every now and then, we hear how there are efforts to renegotiate parts of the contract to make the project feasible. DESPITE ALL OF THAT, the building has already been constructed, many fixtures are in place, painting has been done and only about 25% of the job is left before moving in. That's what the update on the building is. Added to this was the whole compulsion by a certain ex-EC member who insisted on getting a place for his friend Mr. Deshpande from Bombay as Engineer (as stated in his statement to a local newspaper). This gentleman used to come from Bombay, stay at the Hotel Babylon and apparently supervised the work. That's what the university is struggling with as well. I don't know how all the blame can be put on Shrivastava for this!! If anything, now Deshpande is no more the engineer and Nagarjuna Co. is in threat of losing part of its contract to the PWD - which is why this strike comes about in the first place!

REGISTRAR AND FACULTY
Posts have been duly advertised. HNLU is perhaps the ONLY national law school which has through the EC, already, in principle, agreed to apply the 6th Pay Commission salaries for teachers. Every now and then, posts are advertised. This is the only university which provides for accomodation and other facilities for teachers. Then if people do not apply because they do not want to stay in Raipur, it is hardly Shrivastava's fault. If it is, the only solution he has is to shift HNLU to Bombay or someplace! If you want more info on the dates of advertisements etc, check with the administration. We don't know all of that.

HOSTELS AND MESS
As far as the campus is concerned, there is not enough room in the present building to house the hostels. The hostels were earlier closer to the college but now they are not because the houseowners refused to renew the lease because they thought the students were rowdy and made lot of noise. The landowners were freaked out. Hence the new hostels. There have been instances such as one student who was doped out "walked" from a balcony of the 6th floor straight to the Mother Earth's bosom.
As far as the mess arrangements are concerned, my personal opinion is such that if a mess is there, and it provides meals at reasonable prescribed timings, and transport is provided by the university to commute between the hostel and the mess, it is fine. Every single educational institution in this country has a mess which has food during prescribed hours. After that if anyone is hungry, MK Shrivastava is not asking them to stay hungry. They can go out and get food to eat!
The administration had earlier housed the mess in the hostels itself from where there were reports of stealing and maladministration and it was at these incidents that the mess was shifted in the first place.
Solutions that MK Shrivastava could have provided here? Any guesses? Maybe stayed in the hostels late at night to ensure that people don't disturb landowners? Maybe that would have raised other issues of breach of privacy of students and Big Brother behaviour. What are we asking for here?

If after all of this, the strike is for lack of cleanliness, then god help us!! Keep raising questions though! And HEAR THE OTHER SIDE TOO. After all, they are asking us to "revive" HNLU by shutting it down! How ironical.

Peace!