Reporter\'s Diary: Junk food in plastic bags- Dual problems for varsity students

University students in the state will soon have to follow ban on two of their essential items: junk food and plastic bags. 

The University Grants Commission (UGC) recently issued a circular banning the sale and consumption of junk food in all universities and college premises. Many students in the University of Madras, however, continue to buy junk food from the shops around the university and eat it within the campus.

What’s more, the sale of items such as vada, bajji, cutlets and potato chips seems to have increased as the number of shops outside the university has doubled recently. With meals being offered at affordable rates and the occasional free vada or pakoda with curd rice, these stalls are a hit among cash-strapped students.

Meanwhile, people who visit the university are making the best out of the time they have until the ban on the use of plastics come into effect. They carry food or other materials in plastic bags inside in the university campus and leave the bags around.

A cleaning staff said that every day hundreds of students and other people visit the campus and it is difficult to educate everyone on the use and proper disposal of plastic.

Right on cue, this reporter found a student entering the campus with food in a plastic bag. On enquiring why he wasn’t following the rules, the student responded promptly that instead of enforcing bans, the university should set up a big restaurant inside the campus and supply good eatables so that students do not have to venture out for food or bring it in plastic bags.