Institute cited safety concerns in operation of rooftop café

Activists of the Yuva Sena, the youth wing of the Shiv Sena, took out a march to IIT Bombay’s Powai campus on Monday to protest against the exclusion of non-vegetarian food from the menu of the Civil Engineering Department’s rooftop canteen. The Yuva Sena activists raised slogans outside IIT-B’s main gate.

On January 20, the department issued a notice to the contractor of its cafeteria, the Civil Café, asking him to ban meat items, including eggs. A spokesperson for IIT-Bombay said that the norms were changed owing to safety concerns, especially after the fire at Kamala Mills compound on December 28, 2017, which led to the loss of 14 lives.

Sainath Durge, Yuva Sena core committee member, said, “It does not behove the status of an internationally reputed institution like the IIT to discriminate on the basis of food. They have agreed to serve non-vegetarian food now. About twelve members from our delegation were taken to registrar Dr. R. Premkumar’s office in a police van after we shouted slogans outside the campus gate. The registrar said the campus had over 20 canteens and admitted oversight on his part in this case.”

Last week, the IIT drew flak after the management of Hostel 11 on the campus asked its residents to use separate plates for eating non-vegetarian food. However, IIT public relations officer Falguni Banerjee Naha said their recent circular had been misinterpreted.

“Our circular last week just listed out new guidelines to serve only fresh cooked food for health and safety reasons. We have prohibited cooking at the canteens and asked them to refrain from staying up late since the campus is an academic area,” she stressed.