The cramped living conditions of nearly 225 schoolchildren in a government residential school in Puttur was criticised by the 15-member Legislature Committee on Backward Classes and Minorities Welfare which visited the district here on Thursday. The committee was also critical of lack of coordination among departments.
A total of 99 girls and 126 boys of the Moraji Desai Residential School, Puttur live in congested conditions lacking basic facilities in a two-storey rented building there, Deputy Commissioner A.B. Ibrahim told the committee, comprising 10 MLAs and 5 MLCs.
He said the rented premise was supposed to be a “temporary” shelter until the Karnataka Residential Educational Institution Society (KREIS) constructed a Rs. 4.95-crore full-fledged hostel nearby.
“Though the process of construction started five years ago, it is yet to near completion. Unfortunately, district-level officials have no power to expedite construction, and our reports have fallen on deaf ears in the State,” said Mr. Ibrahim, adding that KREIS has no district officer here to effectively oversee the construction.
Calling it a “shame” for the district, B.R. Yavagal, Chairperson of the Committee, sought an assurance from KREIS officials that the building would be constructed by August.
The committee also said that there was a need to “decentralise” the process of construction of hostels, wherein, district Public Works Department can take up the projects instead of Bangalore-based agencies such as KREIS.
‘Excuses’The committee highlighted “laxity” in allotting land and resources to school hostels here. Though there are a total of 68 hostels for minorities and backward classes – housing 6,150 students – in the district, 26 of them operate out of rented premises, district officials appraised the committee.
Of these, 13 have not been allotted lands to construct new hostels.
“Over Rs. 20 crore has been allotted to the district to construct hostels over the past three years, but only Rs. 2 crore has been spent so far. Excuses such as no land, no resources and technical problems have been cited as reasons for the non-expenditure…there has to be a concerted effort by the Tahsildhars to identify land,” said Mr. Yavagall.
With most of the identified land being tangled in legal dispute, Mr. Ibrahim said the administration would conduct a drive to dispose of some of the land cases relating to the hostels pending in the DC court and Assistant Commissioner (AC) court by June-end, he said.
The committee also pulled up officials for not providing basic infrastructure to Backward classes hostels. It said nearly 57 per cent of the hostels did not have water purifiers, just 7 out of 38 hostels had water heaters, fewer than 10 per cent had libraries.
