An Interview with Prof. Manoj Pant,
Chairperson, Campus Development Committee
interviewed by Bhoomika Meiling for JNU News

Bhoomika: How long has your association with JNU been?
Prof. Pant: I joined JNU as Assistant Professor in 1985. I studied in DU, went to USA for my Ph.D and spent two years teaching at DU before coming to JNU.

Bhoomika: What other administrative posts have you held before being appointed as the Chairperson of CDC?
Prof. Pant: I've been the Chairperson of the Centre and Provost before my appointment as Chairperson of CDC in January 2008.

Bhoomika: Tell us about all those things that come under the ambit of CDC. We would also like to know something about your approach towards campus development in the coming years and the reasons for behind it.
Prof. Pant: The coverage of CDC can be divided into two aspects-- overall responsibility and the responsibility in micro issues. Overall CDC comes under the office of the VC. It looks after general issues of campus development, health and sanitation. As is evident, it cuts across areas which are looked after by other offices too. For instance, health is the responsibility of DSW too. Then, environment related issues generally fall under CDC supervision but Environment Task Force is also responsible for several aspects related to environment. Traffic is broadly a CDC area but there is also a Traffic Planning Committee. So we are a broader body but we work in compliance with several other specific bodies. Now, at the micro level there is nothing which is not within the ambit of CDC. For instance, let us take up the allotment of shops which takes an enormous time of CDC.  What we have tried to do is to separate political issues from the non-political issues in relation to this task. Personally, I am a very non-political person and have made an effort to depoliticize the CDC. But I have realized that there are times when some of the political pressures do weigh upon you in such work. To avoid any bias or such pressures, we created a separate allotment committee headed by Prof. D.K. Lobiyal to handle this issue. It consists of representatives from all communities on campus and they are enjoined with the duty of going into the details, studying the rules and regulations, and making recommendations. I've told them that they can take a decision and any thing they say is binding on me.
One thing I noticed in JNU is that there is a lot of pressure on making new things. But no one realizes that our biggest problem is maintenance. 90% of our problems would be solved if we could maintain what we already have. For instance, we happen to have the best open air theatre in Delhi- the PSR. But it was not usable. No one tried to figure out why it was so. The Alumni meet gave me an excuse to find out what the problem was. You would be surprised to know that all we needed to do was to cut grass! Not a single tree was cut. We only cut grass and created a kutcha path (we have no plans to make it concrete.) We got glass put on the windows of the greenrooms, and bathroom, and lo!, we have one of the best OATs, functional and absolutely usable. We just had to do some tinkering with the water pipeline to bring water there and all this required only one and a half weeks. People want to make new theatres without even thinking how the existing ones can be made useful! Now big gatherings of SPICMACAY and other high profile performances can be held in a beautiful and huge OAT!. It is a good venue for hostel nights too! The Security Committee is also planning to look into improving the security coverage there. We would be putting a gate there and create a walking path so that people can go there for walks.

Another thing we are trying to do is to improve the sidewalks. People ask us to remove pedestrians from the road. But the fact is that the sidewalks are absolutely unusable. You can not walk on them. So we all walk on the roads. Now, we are planning to make the sidewalks as comfortable as possible. You just have to think creatively to solve these little problems.

The third issue is sanitation. The most unhygienic and extremely dangerous areas on campus are some of the cafeterias. When the SSS Auditorium caught fire, it was pure luck that the fire did not reach the gas cylinders kept in the cafeteria. Cooking in the basements is forbidden in safety rules. Also any decent university in the world has one eating place where students can go and have a meal in clean and healthy surroundings with choice of menu. Keeping these two things in mind, we plan to stop cooking activities in the basements and convert the canteens into pantries where only packed food can be sold. The area behind the library would be converted into a cafeteria where food stalls shall be put up. These steps would of course require all of us to move out of our respective comfort zones. Take the example of Kamal Complex. All the sewage and hygiene problems of the place arise out of one fact- that the eating places have not been separated from the non-eating places. We are looking at locating the eating places in one place, segregating them from the rest. The toilets there do not function because somehow the sewage line has got blocked. Why can't it be unblocked? It is an easy thing. Why was it not done till yet? Because somewhere there was this idea lurking that we can build a new toilet! But we don't need to do that at all. We have already started the process of making the existing bathrooms usable. When people talk about new buildings they don't realize that there exists a master plan . We have almost used all the land in the campus that was conducive to any kind of construction. Thus, for example, the faculty housing has to expand vertically now. There is absolutely no possibility for horizontal expansion. In the next 20 years I think the single story houses will also have to be converted to double story. Another thing that is not taken into consideration while making such demands is that new construction, though popular, has many hazards- on finances, on environment and on the geography of the campus. I suggest we must all work to protect what we already have. I can see that in coming years, environment issues on campus are going to get more and more severe. With increasing number of students, it is going to be difficult to find space for hostels.

Bhoomika: What are your immediate plans?
Prof. Pant: As of now, we are looking at the ways to stop the entry of the buses to the campus in collaboration with Traffic Planning Committee. Outside buses are environmental, traffic and security nightmares. Can't we have battery-powered cars that can take people from one place to another for a very nominal charge? We are not as hard-pressed for money today as we used to be in the past. We can even get some donations and loans to finance our venture. We do plan to do so as soon as we can but it may take some time- a year or two. Another plan which is already underway is that of issuing identity cards to all those people who are associated with JNU in any way- construction workers, karmacharis, shopkeepers, teachers, etc. The floating population in JNU is huge. It has to be recognized and given I-cards to ensure tighter security. We are planning to issue different types of cards for both permanent and temporary campus members. With what is happening at the national level, it is time JNU addresses these very important security issues. With such high profile students and teachers this campus is extremely vulnerable and an ideal terror bait. It is my view that the security officer should be paid more: currently the chief security officer is at the Assistant Professor level. This must change. Then we are trying to make KC a no-car area. Nobody uses the parking lot. We are planning to do something to make it less crowded and to control the parking.

Bhoomika: We see some ATM counters coming up on campus....
Prof. Pant: Yes, the queue in front of the ATM at Nilgiri Dhaba was becoming endless. So now, we have three more ATMs coming up- an additional SBI at Nilgiri and two at KC. We have used the space very wisely without wasting even an inch and without crowding the place at all.

Bhoomika: Which aspect of JNU do you love the most?
Prof. Pant: I think it is the autonomy. There is no outside police on campus. It is probably the safest place to walk at 12 o'clock in the night in Delhi. Another beautiful and remarkable aspect is that there are no problems between students and other communities. I've never encountered any rudeness or abusiveness coming from students. Co-operation by students is a very enabling force in JNU. These things have kept me deeply attached to JNU and despite the fact that I'm a Delhite, I think it would be difficult to stay anywhere else.

Bhoomika: What message would you like to give to the JNU community?
Prof. Pant: Over time, with more faculty members and more students joining us, the environment will come under severe stress. To solve these problems you will have to move out of your comfort zones. Maybe walk three steps more to have a meal, walk four steps more to get water, five steps more to where your car is parked. If every section does this willingly and consciously, things will be fine. We all have to move out of our comfort zones to bring about a happy change.