Hostel inmates are daily wage labourers here

Jaya Karnataka District President Prasanna Bhat has alleged that the husband  of a teacher in the Government PU College in Madikeri had ‘employed’  nine students from the college for work in a coffee plantation near Neerukolli on last Saturday and Sunday.

The activists of the Jaya Karnataka organisation visited the hostel on Monday when the pathetic condition of the hostel was also brought to light.

The boys who were taken for work are Hemanth (6th std), Nithin (8th std) and Manu, Harish, Kariappa, Kushalappa, Abhishek, Mahesh and Yogish (9th standard).

The organisation has alleged that many other students of the hostel are also being taken for work in the plantations. The students of 8th and 9th standard were paid Rs 100 each while the 6th standard student was paid Rs 25 for their work, said Prasanna Bhat.

The hostel warden has put attendance to all 70 students in the register though some of them had gone for work, which has made way for several suspicions.

According to the hostel cook, food had been arranged for only 48 students on Monday. There are allegations that other 22 students are not staying in the hostel properly. Interestingly, attendance has been given even to those students who are on leave after submitting  letters.

Pathetic state

The condition of the hostel was pathetic when the activists of Jaya Karnataka, Dalit Sangharsha Samiti and BJP SC Morcha paid a surprise visit on Monday. The vegetable stored in the kitchen were half-eaten by rats; the inmates complained that they are getting food of substandard quality.

It was informed that the hostel warden had gone on a 15-day leave but he had not allotted food items sufficient for such number of days.

The activists took the Taluk Social Welfare Officer Gurushanthappa to task who arrived there. They demanded immediate suspension of warden Bharath.

The Social Welfare Officer later agreed to recommend the suspension of the warden. He said he would also request the higher authorities to appoint a new warden.

BJP SC Morcha city unit president Vijay Kumar, DSS’s Prema and Jaya Karnataka’s Naveen were present.