RAJAHMUNDRY : Close on the heels of the barbaric thrashing of three children at a blind school in Kakinada, another incident of student harassment came to light Saturday.
Children of VB Prasad and G Praveen hostel met assistant social welfare officer Raja Sekhar and municipal corporator G Muralidhar Rao and complained against the hostel cook for making the inmates clean bathrooms, drains and the rooms apart from fetching cigarettes for him. They said that the cook was harassing them and the food cooked by him was not worthy of consumption. As many as 80 children of the hostel are studying at a high school at Subbarao Nagar and a primary school at Sanjiv Nagar.
The children, who dared not open their mouth earlier, somehow gathered courage and met the officials. Corporator G Muralidhar Rao admonished the cook for beating the children and harassing them in several ways. He warned the cook that he would be held responsible if anything happened to the children in the future.
Assistant social welfare officer Raja Sekhar recorded the statements of children and said he would send a report to the higher officials.
When contacted, joint director of the Social Welfare Department Madhusudan Rao said he had received some complaints against some wardens as well and that he would send district social welfare officer Rama Rao to conduct a comprehensive inquiry into various charges and take appropriate action.
Meanwhile, activists of the Progressive Democratic Students Union (PDSU) staged a dharna at the hostel at Bhaskar Nagar here on Saturday demanding action against the cook.