A small partitioned room with low roof without any ventilation and peeling walls. These are not scenes from a labour camp, but from a hostel room in Ameerpet which is an abode of not one or two but eight students.
Similar scenes can be witnessed in many private hostels across the city. From being extremely inhabitable to vulnerable to fire mishaps to being low on hygiene, the private hostels thrive without much monitoring from the concerned authorities.
Many inhabitants of these hostels complain about how they were tricked into staying at some of these hostels and that too in pathetic conditions.
“When I joined, I was told that two others will share room with me,” said R. Karthik, a student from Nellore. “After the first few days, the hostel staff kept adding more beds in the room and within no time six of us were staying in a small room. We did not even have space to stand leave alone keeping our belongings at a safe place. I protested about the conditions and the management just said I can leave if I want to since there is a huge demand.”
Most of the private hostels are located in the areas of Ameerpet, Kukatpally, Dilsukhnagar, madhapur and Narayanguda.
The conditions are more or less the same even in girls’ hostels. “I paid Rs. 5,000 per month only because I was promised decent food and accommodation. I had even paid three months advance,” informed N. Divya of Visakapatnam. “I realised it was a worst decision as the kitchen was very unhygienic and most of the times, there was no food available. When I said I wanted to leave, they refused to give my advance,” she added.
This apart, there are a number of instances where residential flats as well as buildings are converted into hostels overnight with protests from residents.
“Some hostels take trade licence and run the hostels in residential buildings without proper permissions,” said Devender Reddy, Chief City Planner, GHMC. “If we get complaints regarding any violations, we will take action against the concerned hostel managements. We can even seal or cancel their licences,” he said.
