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KU canteens cater to small numbers
KARACHI, July 30: With 24,000 students enrolled, apart from the faculty
and other staff, the University of Karachi seriously needs to increase the
number of canteens on the campus from 20 odd to a reasonable
number.
Though there is a marketing committee that looks after the price
control as well as a bunch of people who are there to ensure the quality, little
needs to be said about the overall condition.
As far as the teaching
faculty is concerned, there is just one eating place for them called the
Teacher's Club. Located away from the humdrum, near the pharmacy department, it
is supposed to cater to the 700 or so teaching staff. However, due to it being
located in a far away place, not many professors prefer to go
there.
Whether it is the one rupee samosa of the admin block, chemistry
department's chat, Majiday hotel's daal or Sufi's anda-ghotala, if one studies
at the University of Karachi then these are the things that have surely been not
missed out.
Nonetheless, with no specific canteen for every department,
students flock to the ones closest to their department at times for just food
and at others to chill out or to exchange notes and study materials. Girl
students in particular are very fond of the samosas and rolls and take dozen or
two home in a raw form and serve them after frying them with tea.
It has
been two years since Professor Dr Abuzar Wajidi has been made head of the team
that monitors the canteens. Though he is unaware of the actual prices of food or
the number of canteens on the university campus he claims that his team is
competent and is taking care of the affair pretty well.
"We are trying to
make the existing canteens better and this is why we have stopped giving out
contracts of new canteens to the outsiders", he says. He says that the food is
tested on regular basis by a group of people and sent to lab.
He also
maintains that marketing team of the university makes sure the prices of the
goods remain uniform in the university. However, a student maintains that this
is not the case and prices do vary from one canteen to the other.
"We
have planned to give out outlets to Kentucky Fried Chicken and other such
franchises" says Wajidi. KFC has agreed to give its products on 20 per cent
discount to the students and ten per cent discount to university, he
reveals.
"However, we have asked them to not to give ten per cent
discount to the university and instead give their food on 30 per cent less rates
to the students instead" Dr Wajidi says. Despite all the claims by Wajidi many
students believe that the news of franchise outlets in the university is not new
and that it was expected to be opened few years back.
When the Operation
Manager of KFC, Humayun Sajid, is asked about the certainty of the project he
says that "We have persued the university quite a few times but never got a
positive response in this regard. Therefore we can't say when they will approve
and finalise it", he says.
The Vice-Chancellor of the university, Dr
Pirzada Qasim, maintains that he understood that the number of tuck shops on the
campus was not sufficient for 18,000 or so students that were present in the
university daily.
He shows his concern about the tuck shops and says "We
are trying to improve not only the quality of the food but also the ambiance of
the canteens". He adds after a pause "A tuck shop in my opinion should be a
place more appealing to the aesthetic sense and having a clean and inviting
atmosphere to it, whereas the ones we have seem not so pleasant and are badly
managed".
The VC however maintains that "The quality of food and prices
are monitored and are looked after, and if someone tries to defy the rules, then
he is penalised, fined or his licence is cancelled". Dawn
Your Comments
"im a student of M.Sc final of chemistry dept and i think that chemistrys canteen call talib bhai wali canteen is the best canteen ever.b/c talib bhai is also a nice person and also Whaid bhai and Baba is also very nice and his bergur and samosas and rolls are good enough for us and including CHATT in our dept is much much better then others the other canteen like Jabbar bhai in P.G and Ch.majeed and Qasim bhai samosas are also good i think we dont need any Franchaise or any other outlets in campus b/c our canteens are the speciality of university people outside the campus are very exciting to eat qasim bhai samosas and Jabbar bhai Chana Chatt and we love to eat it too.KFC and many others resturants most of the students not afford and it will creat also a complex in students and employes on the other hand there is a good resturant at MASKAN bovichick its also good enough.so those who want to hangout there they go over there after their classses."
Name: Faizi
City, Country: karachi, Pakistan
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| Education News | | Updated: 24 May, 2012 |
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