The Hindu : Karnataka / Mysore News : Conditions in Government-run hostels appal officials

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Nov 05, 2004

Karnataka

Karnataka - Mysore

Conditions in Government-run hostels appal officials

By Our Staff Correspondent

MYSORE, NOV. 4. A team from the Social Welfare Department, which in the last two days inspected 61 government and aided hostels meant for children hailing from poor families, was in for a rude shock when it saw stinking vegetables, missing wardens, poor quality of foodgrains, and hungry children going to school.

Disclosing this to presspersons, the Commissioner for Social Welfare, K. Shivaram, said that the team comprising 30 officials from the head office also found that the tender for supply of foodgrains to these hostels had been awarded above the prevailing rate in the market.

`Badly maintained'

"The money that was being spent on the education of children belonging to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes was not being spent properly," he said. At least 10 hostels, he said, were very badly maintained. Though all hostels were not in such a state, he said that action against wardens would be initiated where their performance was found to be far from satisfactory. The department would initiate the process of transfer of such erring officials, he added.

He said: "While one team found children preparing food for themselves at Santhe Saragur, the other found that they went to school without food. In some hostels, wardens were present only between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m., whereas the rules stipulated that they should be present during the serving of food."

Problem

Mr. Shivaram said that the team had undertaken the exercise following several complaints about the management of hostels in the district. He said that good quality food could be provided to children with Rs. 450 stipulated for each student in a hostel, and that the problem was with the management and supervision of the hostels.

He said that the Chief Executive Officer of the Mysore Zilla Panchayat had also concurred with the team's findings. Seven teams had been formed by the zilla panchayat to keep a tab on the management of hostels.

Scholarships

On the disbursement of scholarships, Mr. Shivaram claimed that the department had adequate funds to meet the needs of the students. When his attention was drawn towards non-payment of scholarships to students in the University of Mysore, he said the university authorities had not placed proper statements before the department.

He said that the annual scholarship grant was around Rs. 35 crores, of which Rs. 4 crores was given to students in Mysore district. There were 1.3 lakh post-Matric students who were beneficiaries of scholarship schemes of the Government. At some places, he said, the team found that the amount reserved for buying stationery for pre-Matric students had not been spent properly.

Hike in amount

Stating that there was a demand to increase the student scholarships, Mr. Shivaram said that the State Government had formed a committee comprising senior officials to consider these demands. The committee was formed following a request from the Dalit Sangharsha Samithi, and that it would looking into the problems of children from deprived classes in the education sector.

He also pointed out that the scholarship amount for students pursuing medical, engineering and post-graduate courses had been enhanced.

Rehabilitation

On the rehabilitation of bonded labourers in H.D. Kote, Mr. Shivaram said: "It had been found that rehabilitation work undertaken to improve the quality of life of persons rescued from bonded labour was improper. One official had been suspended for providing a low quality bullock cart." He said that the Government had earmarked Rs. 20,000 for each of 500 persons rescued.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Karnataka

News Update

Stories in this Section

Conditions in Government-run hostels appal officials

High rate of malnutrition causing concern

`Five per cent of population has hearing, language problems'

More reservation counters sought

LIC development officers stage dharna

Steel or wood? The debate goes on