Meerut: Days after an email requesting non-vegetarians to use “only tray-type plates meant for non-veg dishes” raked up a controversy at IIT-Bombay, authorities at one of UP's biggest varsities, Chaudhary Charan Singh University in Meerut, on Friday asked the hostel mess in-charges to strictly serve only vegetarian food or else they would be penalized by having to provide free meals to students for an entire day from their own pocket.

The directions came days after a video showing egg curry being prepared in the hostel of the varsity’s engineering wing was put up online and widely shared.

“We made sure that the concerned mess contractor served free meals to students for a day,” PK Sharma, the university’s chief warden, told TOI. There are eight hostels in the campus and each one of them has a separate mess. The authorities claim that they have discontinued serving non-veg after both students and staffers voluntarily agreed to remove it from the menu.

However, the students have a completely different story to tell. “We have written to the administration on several occasions requesting it to at least allow eggs, but no one has heeded our repeated pleas,” said an engineering student, who requested anonymity fearing that the authorities may take action against him for “showing dissent”.

The administration, meanwhile, is sticking to its stand. “If a particular mess in-charge is caught serving non-veg for the second time, his contract will be revoked,” Sharma said.

The university has tied-up with private contractors, who are paid Rs 72 per student per day to serve three meals. The same amount is charged from students as mess fees.

This came even as some students said they have devised what they call “secret means” to cook non-vegetarian meals in the hostel. “We still prepare eggs and boil chicken inside our room,” said a student.

TOI visited the university hostels and found that their dining halls were filthy and kitchens were stinking. “While the administration has cracked down on chicken and eggs, it seems to have ignored the conditions in which food is cooked and served to us,” said another student.