The Karnataka Legislative Assembly’s Backward Classes and Minorities Welfare Committee has directed the state departments concerned to appoint one full-time warden for every hostel under their control in Dakshina Kannada within 15 days, citing serious staffing shortages and concerns over student safety and basic services.
The direction was issued at a meeting with district officials in Mangaluru on Thursday under the chairmanship of committee chairman and MLA Tanveer Sait. The meeting reviewed the functioning of hostels run by the departments for backward classes and minorities, including the practice of assigning one warden responsibility for three or four hostels.
Sait said the arrangement was not acceptable because wardens are responsible for protecting students, overseeing hostel infrastructure and food services, and ensuring that security arrangements do not fail. He instructed the departments to replace additional-charge arrangements with a full-time warden for each hostel.
The committee also directed the Dakshina Kannada deputy commissioner to identify land and facilitate the construction of permanent buildings for 23 hostels run by the Backward Classes Department that are currently operating from rented premises. District-level officers are to be appointed as nodal officers for individual hostels to improve administrative monitoring.
The review also highlighted a major gap between demand for hostel accommodation and available capacity. As many as 12,000 students applied for hostel facilities in Dakshina Kannada this year, but only 275 applicants received new hostel seats, according to the information discussed at the meeting. The committee instructed the authorities to increase the number of hostels in line with demand.
For students who do not receive hostel accommodation, Sait directed officials to ensure access to financial assistance under the Vidyasiri scheme. He said only a very small number of students in the district had benefited from the scheme and instructed the authorities to extend it to all eligible applicants who applied for a hostel seat but were not accommodated. The committee also directed officials to seek the additional funds required from the state government.
The committee raised a separate issue concerning food allowances for students in privately aided schools. It said the amount provided per student was too low and should be brought on par with the amount sanctioned for students in government schools.
Sait further instructed officials to ensure that hostel buildings, beds and cots purchased for students were suited to local climatic conditions. The meeting was attended by MLAs Uma Nath Kotyan, Rajesh Naik Ulipady, B.P. Harish, Iqbal Hussain, Kareಮ್ಮಾ Nayak, K. Abdul Jabbar and Keshav Prasad, along with Backward Classes Department Commissioner Vikas Suralkar, Deputy Commissioner Darshan H.V., Zilla Panchayat Chief Executive Officer Narwade Vinayak Karbari and Mangaluru City Corporation Commissioner Rahul Ratnam Pandey. The departments are expected to complete the warden appointments within the 15-day deadline.
