The admission season was supposed to be a boon for food kiosks across the North Campus.
However, this season has turned out to be lean for college canteens, bantawalas, momos on wheels alike, which almost vacant outside popular colleges of the North Campus, waiting for customers.
Many kiosk owners have not seen even a paltry increase in their sales this session. They have categorically blamed the University's introduction of online application process, which started three years ago.
Droves of students were seen in the Campus during the ten-day Open Days session, which was the only time that vendors earned some money.
Usually, the average daily sales of most street vendors varied from Rs 5,000-6,000 during the admission season. This was enough for them to which make a good saving. Right now, they can't earn more than Rs 1,000 a day.
A vendor, Akhtar Ali, has stationed his kiosk outside the Shri Ram College of Commerce (SRCC) in 1971.
However, Ali looks pessimistic and is not very pleased with the state of affairs this year. "Even till last year, sales were impressive," Ali rued.
Ali further said, "There was a time when thousands of students thronged the Campus daily. I used to sell almost 30 crates of banta (lime soda) every day. However, this year a lot of stuff has gone online and even the sports and ECA (extra-curricular activities) beneficiaries are not coming to SRCC."
"Some days are really bad for us," said a disheartened Ali.
Chole kulche vendors, like Uncle Tom, and popular student joints such as the Hindu College canteen, Hansraj College canteen, tell the same story.
Tara Chand, who set up his shop in North Campus since Indira Gandhi's regime, says, "The entire year we keep waiting for the admission season, so that we can accumulate a corpus for our family.
"But this time, sales have declined drastically. In fact, I have now reduced the amount of chole with the bhaturas because the regular quantity stored in the stand goes waste," said Tara Chand.