Students of hostels run by the Social Welfare Department are worried as the hostel authorities have refused to provide nutritious food, citing shortage of cylinders as the reason.
Hostel authorities have stopped serving eggs, fruits, milk and meat as they used up their savings to purchase additional gas cylinders in most hostels of the district.
The hostel authorities have taken the unscientific decision following the recent direction of the Union government to supply only six cylinders at subsidised rates per year.
Sources said that over 30 per cent of funds released by the Zilla Panchayat will be spent on gas cylinders.
The government’s price for a cylinder is Rs 450 and commercial cylinders cost Rs 1,160. The district has 102 hostels, which requires 1,180 gas cylinders.
The department is facing an additional burden of Rs 7 lakh a year. Senior officials in the Social Welfare Department stopped the purchase of nutritious food following oral directions by higher authorities.
Highly-placed sources said that the state government had appealed to the Union Minister of Human Resource and Petroleum Ministry to initiate immediate steps to supply gas cylinders based on the strength of students in each hostel.
“We have stopped preparing nutritious food since September 15 since we used up the money to purchase additional gas cylinders,” assistant director of Social Welfare Department Nagaraj told Express.
The department has also urged the state government to supply more gas cylinders, he added. Coming down heavily on the Centre’s recent policy, students urged the it to withdraw its policy and supply sufficient cylinders for hostels.
