BENGALURU: The Karnataka High Court on Tuesday suggested that the Chief Secretary pay surprise visits to hostels to check facilities, and government offices to see whether applications are disposed of or not.A division bench of acting Chief Justice H G Ramesh and Justice P S Dinesh Kumar made this oral suggestion while hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) seeking directions to oversee spending of budgetary allocations for SC and ST hostels.
The petitioner had claimed that funds were not utilised properly for the welfare of inmates.
The division bench issued notices to the Chief Secretary, Social Welfare Department, Commissioner of Social Welfare and Director General of Police, Directorate of Civil Rights Enforcement and emergent notice to the Karnataka Child Rights Protection Commission.
In the PIL, Vinay Venugopal, a resident of Konena Agrahara, contended that the state had allocated `1,300 crore for around 2,000 hostels housing 25,000 students for the financial year 2016-17. The hostels were not properly maintained and students were not provided adequate facilities such as mattresses, he argued.
For instance, at a hostel on MG Road in Bengaluru, there were no doors and many students were overstaying. “The petition has a good public cause. Public money should not be drained uselessly. Do you think the government should work rationally? Everybody is depending on the court for directions to get things done. That means, there is no proper administration,” the bench observed.The bench replied, “Ask your Chief Secretary to pay surprise visits to hostels. She will have a shock of her life.”
‘Panel without stewards not acceptable’
Bengaluru: In view of the Bangalore Turb Club Limited not agreeing to the proposal of constituting a committee without stewards to oversee the winter season races, the Karnataka High Court on Tuesday adjourned the hearing to Thursday for passing interim order on petition seeking directions to the government to renew the license for conducting horse race. Justice A S Bopanna adjourned the hearing of a batch of pleas after the counsel of BTC submitted that the proposal of constituting committee is not acceptable as the stewards are not included in the committee.