NID, Andhra Pradesh Students Protests Over Lack Of Basic Facilities (image- facebook/National Institute of Design, Andhra Pradesh)

Frustrated by several issues including lack of basic facilities and an unhygienic campus environment, students of the National Institute of Design (NID), Andhra Pradesh, have commenced a hunger strike against the management in the college premises.

The National Institute of Design, Andhra Pradesh established in 2015 is the second autonomous design institute, under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India. The students of the institute have been affected by food poisoning due to the poor quality of the food and water provided by the college. The college which was initially operated in a transit campus was relocated to a permanent one in Amaravati in March.

According to one of the students, Bachelor of Communication Design, the students of the college were shifted to the new campus where the construction work is still going on. And this has forced them to live in an unhygienic condition. The administration later decided to relocate following the death of one of its students, Sabrish RS who along with other students of the NID resided in an independent apartment leased by them.

The lease period of the college has ended in last December. Sabrish passed away from cardiac arrest while receiving treatment for food poisoning. Following the complaint filed by the victim’s father, the case is under investigation.

Thus, the college was then shifted to an unfinished infrastructure which is situated in Sakhamuru village, Amaravati. Though the students were shifted, the plight of the hostelers continued. Upon arrival, due to the bad quality of food provided by mess and unfiltered water, 23 students were hospitalised and around 40 were reported unwell. When three students were reported sick, they faced several delays in acquiring permission to leave and the ambulance driver to arrive. 30 students who have fallen sick, vomited and faced diarrhea of varied degrees. The health of the students was seriously affected as a result of the quality of the mess food which they had been consuming for the past two weeks.

Without solving the issues raised by the students, the faculties have canceled the summer vacation in June and are now heading to continue with their offline classes.

The students have also claimed that the external faculties are not ready to take offline classes ever since they have shifted. The NID provides four courses and has four batches, each batch consists of around 40 students.

A meeting was held with the administration on Monday, April 1, 2024 following which the students commenced the protest, which has now escalated to a hunger strike.

Timeline Daily has tried to contact NID regarding the issue but haven”t received any response from their side. The story will be updated soon once the NID, Andhra Pradesh responds.