A parking dispute at the IITRAM hostel in Ahmedabad’s Khokhra area escalated on October 28 after National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) workers locked the college’s main gate, alleging that resident students were being prevented from parking their two-wheelers and cars inside the hostel premises.
According to a report by Divya Bhaskar – Ahmedabad, students living in the hostel had been parking their vehicles outside the gate after they were not allowed to use the available parking area. The students subsequently approached NSUI with their complaint.
NSUI had staged a protest at the college two days before the gate was locked, demanding that the parking problem be resolved. The organisation said the earlier demonstration and representation had not produced a solution, and its workers returned to the IITRAM campus early on October 28.
The protestors tied an iron chain across the main gate and locked it while raising slogans over the students’ parking difficulties. The action turned what began as a facilities dispute into a disruption at the main entrance of the institution.
The episode highlights the operational consequences of unresolved parking arrangements at residential educational campuses. When hostel residents cannot park vehicles within the premises, vehicles may be left outside the gate, creating questions about access control, security, circulation and responsibility for vehicles. The report, however, does not provide details about the total number of hostel residents, the capacity of the parking facility or the college’s stated parking policy.
Vedant Tomar, NSUI’s state vice-president, alleged that the organisation had visited IITRAM a day earlier and that a warden had behaved aggressively in front of police. That allegation was included in his statement to the publication and was not accompanied in the supplied report by a response from the warden or the college administration.
Tomar said NSUI had locked the gate during the day because students had not received a satisfactory response to their concerns. He warned that the organisation would continue locking the college gate every day unless the issue was resolved and said a more intense protest would be launched if there was no solution within 24 hours.
The immediate dispute remains focused on whether hostel students will be permitted to park their vehicles inside the IITRAM premises and how the institution will respond to the protest. The next stated deadline is NSUI’s 24-hour ultimatum for a resolution to the parking issue.
