Hostels with less than 100 students to be closed

VIJAYAWADA: The state government has decided to close down welfare hostels including social welfare, BC welfare, tribal welfare and minority welfare whose strength is below 100, social welfare minister Pithani Satyanarayana has said.Speaking to newsmen here on Saturday, the minister said these hostels, however, would be merged with the other nearby hostels.There are 2,385 welfare hostels in the state including social welfare, BC welfare, tribal welfare and minority welfare at present. The government plans to close down nearly 400 to 500 hostels, the minister said.Satyanarayana said the government is spending more money on each student where the strength of the students is below 100, and hence the decision to close down.  It has been decided to rope in the Civil Supplies and Girijan Cooperative Corporations for the supply of essential commodities to the welfare hostels after doing away with the private suppliers. All the essential commodities including rice, red gram, groundnut, wheat and others would be purchased from the civil supplies department at subsidised price from August onwards. By doing so the welfare hostels could save up to Rs 60 crore per annum, he said.The hostels will also maintain a data base of all the students in the schools which will be available on the internet by August 1 as admission into these hostels will end by July 31.The minister said they have also decided to pay the building rents of hostels and contract teachers every month without depending on the state treasury.The minister conducted a review meeting with social welfare officials of six districts including Krishna, Guntur, Prakasam, West and East Godavari and Nellore.