Pune: Food and Drug Administration (FDA) officials inspected the refectory at the Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU) on Tuesday night after repeated complaints of worms being found and various other contaminations in the food served in the messes on the campus.Students have been complaining for long that the SPPU administration was turning a blind eye to the concerns raised. They were demanding action against the contractor as also dissolution of the existing food quality control committee and formation of a new one. The students had threatened to launch a mass email campaign to the FDA from Wednesday if their requests were not met. There are around eight messes and one refectory on the SPPU campus.Food safety officer Ajinkya Umap visited the campus on Tuesday and inspected the refectory. “I will submit the report to senior officer assistant commissioner Imran Hashmi. We have told the contractor to attend a hearing at 11am on Wednesday in the FDA office. Seniors will hear him out, take recommendations from my report and decide the next course of action. Till then, the various messes on campus and the refectory cannot serve food,” he said.Umap further said that based on the hearing and the report, the punishment could be anything from an improvement notice to a fine to even his licence being suspended.President of the University Student Struggle Action Committee Abhishek Shelkar said the university administration had ignored multiple complaints about the unhygienic food. “Over the last one month, we found worms and other insects in the food at least five to six times at different messes and the refectory. A day ago, a fight broke out between the staff at one mess. They were under the influence of alcohol. However, the SPPU did nothing. We had decided to start an online campaign to send 500 email complaints to the FDA from Wednesday, but the officials came and checked the facilities on Tuesday.”Student Anmol Kumbhar said students had to contact the security dept to break the fight between the mess staff recently. “If they cook in an inebriated condition, one can only imagine the quality maintained,” he said.Rishi Jawale, another student, said students should at least get hygienic, if not tasty food. “It is the basic right of all students. Will the administration wake up only after students start to fall ill?” he said.
