Varsity plans centralised kitchen for supplying food to hostels

B.Sc. Ed. likely to be launched in Yuvaraja’s College from this academic year

University of Mysore plans to establish a new PG centre at K.R. Nagar.

The University of Mysore has proposed to establish a centralised kitchen for supplying food to its hostels on the Manasagangotri campus as well as in PG centres outside Mysuru. This decision comes at a time when the university was making efforts to streamline food supply in the hostels, sourcing food for the hostels from one location.

The proposal came up for a discussion at the Syndicate meeting here on Thursday. Vice-Chancellor G. Hemantha Kumar chaired the meeting. As many as 17 hostels house about 5,000 students. Food is cooked in each hostel for feeding the students. The food supply in hostels is outsourced.

The university is now mulling over establishing centralised kitchen services to make food supply more efficient and improve quality as well. Under this system, cooked food will be supplied directly to all hostels from the centralised kitchen.

Sources told

The Hindu that the university officials will be studying the functioning of centralised kitchens in the private set-up, including those set up by the Akshaya Patra Foundation, which supplies food to schools under the mid-day meal scheme. The university plans to establish a mega kitchen in the next six months.

“The university plans to establish state-of-the-art kitchen infrastructure, hire cooks and buy groceries and other essentials on its own to operate the food supply to hostels. The proposal will also be placed before the Academic Council which is meeting on June 7, for approval,” the sources add.

The university has come forward to launch a four-year integrated B.Sc. Ed. programme in a bid to make teacher education more professional, complying with the new NCTE norms.

“The B.Sc. Ed. programme will be launched at Yuvaraja’s College, Mysuru, a constituent college of the university. The proposal will be placed before the Academic Council for approval and thereafter the permission of National Council for Teacher Education will be sought,” the sources add.

The university needs to find the faculty and establish infrastructure at the science college for running the integrated course.

One more PG centre

The Syndicate also discussed setting up of a PG centre at K.R. Nagar in the district. Mandya, Hassan and Chamarajanagar have PG centres on sprawling campuses.

Sources said the proposal for setting up the centre at K.R. Nagar came from the government itself and accordingly the university prepared statutes and other requisites towards establishing it. “The proposal will be sent to the government for its approval after the nod from the Academic Council.”

The new PG centre will serve the population around K.R. Nagar, including Periyapatna, from where a large number of students come to Mysuru for pursuing post-graduate programmes.