Hyderabad, Oct 13 (IANS) The Telangana government has allocated Rs. 60 crores from the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund (CMRF) for emergency works in welfare hostels for Backward Classes, Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and minorities in the state.

These funds will be used for diet charges in hostels, payment of salaries of contract workers, repair of motors and other emergency works.

Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy, on Monday, handed over the cheques of funds allocated for hostels to the senior officers of the respective departments. The Chief Minister conducted a review of BC, SC, ST, minority welfare hostels and educational institutions.

According to the Chief Minister’s Office, he ordered that special attention be paid to welfare hostels in the state and arrangements should be made for facial recognition of students, teaching and non-teaching staff staying in hostels.

CM Revanth Reddy stressed the need for full-scale data and accountability. He suggested an app to know the quality of food provided to students. He ordered that steps should be taken to ensure that students get quality and nutritious food with proper nutrients, and that they should know the calories they get.

The CM suggested that senior officers should ensure that uniforms and books are provided to hostel students on time.

He ordered that complete information related to facilities in hostels and their management should be uploaded on the dashboard from time to time. He stated that there is a need to pay special attention to the health of students in the hostels.

The CM suggested that government and private medical colleges, community health centres and area hospitals in every district should be linked with the hostels. He ordered that medical camps should be organised in the hostels and that doctors should be available to the students in times of emergency.

The CM ordered that the district collectors and additional collectors should visit the hostels frequently and ensure that the students get better services.

Chief Minister Revanth Reddy directed Chief Secretary Ramakrishna Rao and the Special Chief Secretary of Welfare Departments Sabyasachi Ghosh to prepare and submit an action plan regarding scholarships, staff salaries, diet charges, construction costs, other expenses, payment of dues, monthly expenses for running the hostels, and the amount required for payment of dues for BC, SC, ST and minority hostels.

The Chief Minister ordered officials to mobilise funds from centrally sponsored schemes for the hostels and release the matching grant of the state government in this regard immediately.

The CM suggested setting up a hotline so that doctors are available online 24 hours a day, and using ed tech to prepare for competitive exams. The Chief Minister suggested that the services provided to hostel students should be informed through social media and that deliberate false propaganda should be stopped.

Before the review, Special Chief Secretary of Welfare Departments Sabyasachi Ghosh gave a presentation on the conditions in the hostels. State BC Welfare Minister Ponnam Prabhakar, SC, ST, Minority Welfare Minister Adluri Laxman Kumar, Chief Minister’s Advisor Vem Narender Reddy, State Government Advisor Shabbir Ali, Chief Minister’s Principal Secretary V. Seshadri, and Chief Minister’s OSD Vemula Srinivasulu were present.

–IANS

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