BENGALURU: The Higher Education Department, which constructed hostels for Schedule Caste and Schedule Tribe students, are lying vacant as it did not make any facilities for boarding. The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report, which was tabled on Thursday, called the hostels “unfruitful”. According to the report, the Directorate of Technical Education had given the construction of hostel work for SCs and STs to the Karnataka Rural Infrastructure Development Limited (KRIDL) without calling for tenders in March 2014.
Even in March 2021, out of 44 hostels, only 31 were completed. Even though funds were released in advance, work was incomplete and the department failed to insist KRIDL to finish them. As an obligatory responsibility, all the hostels maintained by the state government has to provide both lodging and boarding to rural poor inmates. “However, the hostels constructed by them did not intent to provide the basic requirement of free food. This is why poly technical students did not respond to admission in these hostels,” the report pointed out.
The report also said the expenditure of Rs 43.82 crore incurred for providing exclusive benefits to students belonging to SC and ST communities was tendered largely unfruitful. But the issue did not end here. “Despite the fact that the already constructed hostel buildings could not be put to use for the intended purpose, the department, in its action plan, proposed construction of additional rooms in 43 out of 44 hostels at an estimated cost of Rs 27.9 crore.
The action plan was also approved without any checking. The state government accorded to construct six additional rooms in each hostel of 31 completed hostels at a cost of Rs 90 lakh per hostel, amounting to Rs 27.90 crore, of which Rs 20.77 crore has been released to the Karnataka Housing Board (KHB).
The report also said the department released funds of Rs 64.59 crore for the construction and extension of hostel buildings that did not intend to serve basic free food was injudicious and failed to benefit the targeted community due to the non-responsiveness of students.