http://www.newindpress.com/NewsItems.asp?ID=IEK20061226032219&Topic=0&Title=Southern%20News%20-%20Karnataka&Page=K
SOUTHERN NEWS - KARNATAKA Dec 27, 2006 SC/ST hostels in dire state Tuesday December 26 2006 13:43 IST BAGALKOT: Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) has been striving to throw light on problems in the field of education and also to help solve them for the last 55 years. Now it has taken up a new but unique project of conducting a survey to find out how the government SC/ST and OBC hostels in the State are working and how the students are leading their lives in such hostels. It is said if the Government and society make up their minds nothing is impossible. But unfortunately it is not happening and thus with a view to draw the attention of the people and the government, ABVP constituted a committee of its prime activists and conducted a comprehensive survey of state of affairs of 170 SC/ST and OBC hostels throughout the State and the report of which will soon be submitted to the government for necessary action. The hostels are in dire condition and need major surgery, states the report. Releasing the copy of report by the State unit of ABVP for the first time in Bagalkot at a press conference here on Sunday, Basavaraj Kubakaddi, state joint secretary and B Harsha, district organising secretary said that of the 170 hostels, 50 were running in rented buildings. In other cases there were no hostel facilities. They said that 50 students of BCM hostel in Chamrajnagar, 475 students of SC/ST hostel in Bagepalli, 350 students of SC/ST hostel in Shidlaghatta, 100 students of Banashankari hostel for SC/STS in Tumkur and 120 students of SC/ST hostel in Shahapur were staying in private rooms paying rent personally. On the other hand Rs 30,000 a month was being paid as rent to the 5-room building of OBC hostel for girls in Kengeri near Bangalore, they added. The condition of students residing in such hostels was pathetic, they said and informed that only three rooms had been allotted to 100 students in Shahapur SC/st hostel, four rooms for 70 students in Raichur OBC hostel, five rooms for 360 students in Bagepalli SC/ST hostel and only one room was available for 150 students in Chamrajnagar, two toilets and four bathrooms were provided for 100 students in Shahapur, 3 toilets and 4 bathrooms for 100 students in Chitradurga, there was no toilet and only one bathroom for 100 students in Chamrajnagar and there was only one toilet and a bathroom for 300 students in Shidlghatta SC/ST hostel, they said. There was no toilet facility in BCM hostel, Sedam, SC/ST hostels in Yadgiri, Tumkur and Bagepalli, they added. When this is the case how the students can concentrate on studies, asked Kubakaddi. Kubakaddi informed that no refreshment was supplied in about 90 per cent of such hostels and the food supplied was of inferior quality. Interestingly in some hostels students were seen playing the role of a 'cook' because of scarcity of staff. Wardens were not doing their duty properly, girls hostels had no compound walls and necessary security, said Kubakaddi. Though the government was releasing Rs 1,500 a year for newspapers and TV but in most of the hostels this facility was not available, said B Harsha. Kubakaddi said that ABVP demanded that food cost per student be increased from Rs 500 to Rs 1,000, to increase number of rooms in hostels, provide basic amenities, to construct additional hostels, to increase scholarships for such students, make security arrangements for girls hostels, to constitute a supervisory committee consisting of dignitaries, educationists and past students and thereby bring constructive changes. He said the report would be submitted to the government and if it did not take corrective measures, ABVP would launch an agitation throughout the State in January, he warned. Satish Mokashi, Kumar Goudar and Nabi Nadaf were present.
