HYDERABAD: The National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC) has issued notice to the chief secretary and DGP over alleged derogatory comments made by Secretary of Telangana Social Welfare Residential Educational Institutions Society (TSWREIS) Alagu Varshini against SC Gurukul students. The Commission has directed them to submit an action taken report within 15 days.
The controversy erupted after an audio clip went viral, in which she was heard instructing school principals to assign students the task of cleaning toilets and hostel rooms in Gurukul schools. However, Varshini clarified that ‘this is about life skills, not labour’.
A purported audio clip of the officer ‘instructing’ principals at a recent review meeting to involve students in cleaning toilets, hostel rooms, as well as cooking meals has gone viral, drawing sharp criticism from the BRS.
BRS MLC K Kavitha has said that each social welfare school had received Rs 40,000 per month during the K Chandrasekhar Rao regime for hiring four temporary workers for cleaning tasks.
“This has been stopped by the Congress government starting May this year,” she alleged.
In a recent post on ‘X’, Kavitha said, “The state government has also done away with having assistant caretakers in the 240 schools, forcing the students to take up the role of wardens and manage kitchens. Now the officer is forcing children to clean toilets in schools !!”
The IAS officer, however, refuted the allegations and said they were just an activity to “tarnish” the government. She emphasised that all the sanitation staff remain employed.
“Leaders like Gandhi and Ambedkar emphasised personal hygiene and dignity of work. Our students call me ‘Amma’. I treat them as my own children. Asking them to be responsible for their surroundings is about nurturing future-ready citizens, not exploiting them,” Varshini said.
The official also denounced the selective editing of her two-hour speech into “misleading” four-minute audio clips now circulating on social media.
In her clarification, the official expressed pain at being reduced to a caste tag in political narratives.
“I come from a BC farming family. I have climbed each step through sheer perseverance. It’s heartbreaking when caste becomes a tool to diminish merit,” she said.
She added that while majority of the residential students are from the scheduled castes, BCs, STs, and minority students are equally part of the system. “I treat them all with the same care. Don’t colour our children with your political brush,” a release quoted her as saying.