HYDERABAD: National Backward Classes Welfare Association president and Rajya Sabha member R Krishnaiah on Friday demanded that Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao immediately conduct a review on the conditions of welfare hostels and ensure there would be no deaths of students in future.
Expressing concern over the series of deaths of students in SC, ST and BC hostels due to viral fevers and food poisoning, Krishnaiah demanded that the Chief Minister intervene and constitute an high-level committee to resolve the issues in hostels. He said students were now scared of joining government hostels. Krishnaiah, in a letter to the Chief Minister highlighted the recent incidents in hostels in Adilabad, Karimnagar, Nizamabad, Khammam and Warangal districts.
Krishnaiah pointed out that the mess charges fixed some five years ago were continuing even today. The prices of all essential commodities were increased by two to three times in the last five years, he said. With this, the officials were facing shortage of funds for implementing the menu, Krishnaiah said.
He said that the price of meals in a hotel would be around Rs 60 and while the sum allotted for meals in hostels was just Rs 10. The State government was paying Rs 2,100 per month for inmates of jails and giving only Rs 950 per month for the inmates of schoolchildren in hostels, he lamented.