Farmers strike hits Indore hostels hard

INDORE: The second day of the 10-day strike called by farmers forced hostel owners and mess in-charges in the city to buy vegetables and milk at higher prices. There are more than 1000 hostels, where students and working professionals from other cities live. Apart from the private hostels, universities’ hostels also had to suffer with the scarcity of milk and vegetables. In the DAVV’s hostel around 75 girls and a few boys are staying back due to their coaching and internships. “I brought some vegetables for today from a friend’s farm in a nearby village, but the villagers have warned me not to come there now so I’ll have to think about some other alternatives like cereals and pulses for the coming days now,” said DAAV hostel’s mess in-charge Ravi Hardia. “I somehow managed to get packets of milk, but I had to shell out extra money for that. A packet, which would cost Rs 17, was available at Rs20,” he added. Owing to shortage of milk and vegetables private hostels also had to suffer. Many hostels did not serve tea or coffee. The hostel owners are now worried about the coming days. “The vegetable prices are so high that we brought half of the quantity required daily. We did not get milk so we couldn’t serve tea to the hostelites,” said Aaditya Singh, owner of Vinayak Boys Hostel. The orphanages and the old age homes in the city faced a similar condition. They will be dependent on pulses and rice. “It was the second day so we used vegetable from our stock for today. We will be dependent on rice and pulses stock. Some vegetables are also grown in our kitchen garden so we are using that also. As a replacement of milk we have got milk powder for now,” said a volunteer from Aastha Vridhaashram.