Andhra Pradesh - Visakhapatnam   

Overcrowding is still a problem here

— Photo: C.V. Subrahmanyam

no room: Over 30 students are housed in this room of a welfare hostel in the city.

VISAKHAPATNAM: It took the life of a tribal girl and an overnight stay by an MLC to bring about some improvement at the tribal welfare hostels in the district. Though there seems to be a noticeable improvement at the Tribal Welfare Hostel for College Girls at MVP Colony, the problem of overcrowding continues to haunt the hostels.

The girls’ hostel at MVP Colony and the boys’ hostel at Kapparada (Kancharapalem) now have water treatment plants for provision of safe drinking water to inmates. The inmates had been falling sick by drinking contaminated water drawn from borewells. The problem of overcrowding continues at Kapparada. This hostel that can accommodate about 150 students is packed with more than double its capacity. Sanitation is also said to be poor.

The worst case is the Tribal Welfare Hostel for Boys opposite the Prem Samajam at Dabagardens. It is difficult finding the hostel building though it is located opposite such an important landmark in the city. There is hardly anyone on Prema Samajam Street who can guide you. The entrance to the hostel, located in an old private building, is from the other side of the street that has several transport agency offices.

This hostel, meant for PG tribal boys, studying in the city, has no protected water supply. “We have to carry water from the borewell located on the street all the way up to our rooms. The building has 20 rooms and they are overcrowded all the time. The situation is so bad that we do not even have enough room to store our luggage. Over a dozen students are crammed in each room,” said an inmate. “More students are being accommodated in the already overcrowded rooms to add to our woes. We experience the worst nightmare whenever power goes off for any reason. There is no generator and we are left to the mercy of the mosquitoes. The borewell water is resulting in throat problems among some of the inmates and occasionally they are falling prey to viral fevers. The malaria officer from the nearby Municipal Dispensary attends on us,” he says.

“The problem was worse during the tenure of the previous warden. He used to stay outside the hostel and come according to his whims and fancies. The present warden, who took over a month ago, is staying in the hostel building and can be approached whenever we have any problem,” he said. “There are 10 bathrooms for about 250 inmates and they are unhygienic. The rooms are also unclean,” he says. He has no complaints against the quality of food being supplied at the hostel.

“We took buildings on rent at Dabagardens and Marripalem due to lack of accommodation at Kapparada but in spite of that we are unable to meet the demand. We had to accommodate 200 boys in 13 rooms,” says Assistant Tribal Welfare Officer M. Kamala. The inmates of these two hostels largely depend on water from borewells to meet their drinking water needs.

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