Members of the Scheduled Caste (SC) wing of the Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday staged a protest on the zilla panchayat premises urging the government to upgrade amenities at hostels run by the Department of Social Welfare.
Addressing the protest meet, Mandenakoppa Devaraj, president of the district unit of the SC wing of the BJP, said although people living in SC hostels had staged protests on several occasions against poor quality of food being served to them, the authorities concerned had not taken proper action to address the problem. At present, there are 73 hostels for Scheduled Caste communities in the district, including hostels for students pursuing pre-matriculation, post-matriculation, vocational and professional courses.
The government should take measures to maintain cleanliness in hostels.
The government had not appointed security guards for a pre-matriculation hostel at Kallihal village in Bhadravati taluk and other places.
As a majority of hostels were located on the city’s outskirts and villages, the government should appoint security personnel for them, he said.
