Uncertainty and desperation have engulfed more than 400 students at Bunda College of the Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources (Luanar) as demolition of private hostels around the college has begun.<\/p>\n
In August last year, the University Council directed that some slum-like houses that were illegally built around the college be destroyed. The college gave September 15, 2015 as a deadline for the Bunda staff, who constructed the houses to voluntarily demolish the structures.<\/p>\n
It was arranged that about 1,000 students occupying these hostels would be accommodated in some new hostels that the college was constructing. But a visit to the college on Wednesday showed that the hostels were incomplete. However, the forced demolition of the slums was underway.<\/p>\n
According to vice president of the students\u2019 union Julius Maluza, efforts to get a court injunction to buy time while the other students search for places to stay proved futile.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Lilongwe High Court could not grant us an injunction because they said the structures were illegally built. They also said that we are just tenants of the hostels hence not qualified to apply for the injunction\u201d, said Maluza<\/p>\n
Around half of the students who occupied these hostels have not been able to find a roof since the directive and are now roaming about the surrounding villages in a tedious search for a place to stay. Meanwhile, about 450 of the students have been transferred to a place near Mitundu Secondary School.<\/p>\n
Some students said the vacant houses available around the college do not have necessities like proper running water and electricity hence unfit for a scholar.<\/p>\n
When asked on the matter and what will happen to the stranded students, the Director of Students Affairs at the college, Martin Gulure, said the college was just following orders from council.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have no comment on the issue. The university is following the decision that was made. The council was guided by the policies and rules on illegal construction of structures\u201d, said Gulure<\/p>\n
Bunda College has over 3,000 students. Functional hostels at the college can only accommodate slightly below 700 scholars.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Uncertainty and desperation have engulfed more than 400 students at Bunda College of the Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources (Luanar) as demolition of private hostels around the college has begun. In August last year, the University Council directed that some slum-like houses that were illegally built around the college be destroyed. The college […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":21754,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21753","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21753","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21753"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21753\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21755,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21753\/revisions\/21755"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21754"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}