The curious case of missing grains in Kolar

Tahsildar finds wardens guilty of misusing hostel supplies

Tahsildhar S M Mangala, who found this during her inspection of the hostels on November 11, had even submitted a report to the Deputy Commissioner.

Almost three weeks have passed since then, but there are no signs of any action being initiated against the wardens of the said hostels.

Mangala visited the two girls’ hostels in Bovi Colony, Madanahalli Cross and another one near the Deputy Commissioner’s office on November 10 equipped with documents indicating that the hostels were distributed with several quintals of grains from the Taluk Agricultural Produce Co-operative Marketing Society (TAPCMS) and Janatha Bazaar in October.

Warden in dock

But during her visit, she found that supplies in the hostels were much lesser that what was distributed –– one of the hostels just had just one quintal of grains –– and submitted a report the next day.

According to the report, a copy of which is available with the Deccan Herald, the Post-metric Girls’ Hostel near DC office was supplied with 30 quintals of rice and 20 quintals of wheat on October 11.

But during the Tahsildhar’s visit, she found that there was only one quintal of rice. In addition, hostel warden Sulochana Sumalatha failed to provide relevant documents.

She claimed the hostel accepted only 15 quintals of rice since they have a lack of storage space, but failed to give any explanation for the missing 14 quintals.|

No food for students

The report also states that the toilets in the hostel were dirty, lights were missing and no food was prepared for the students.

The two hostels in Bovi Colony, which is home for 270 students, were supplied with 50 quintals and 40 quintals of rice each on October 27.

The Tahsildhar found that while the wheat was intact, there was only 20 quintals of rice. The warden here too offered the same excuse of lack of space.

Tahsildhar Mangala also found that only 53 students ate at the hostels and the hostels had no records of the supplies purchased.

The hostel in Madanahalli Cross was supplied with 40 quintals of rice and 20 quintals of wheat on October 1.

Warden of the hostel, Janaki was not available at the hostel during the Tahsildhar’s visit and failed to come in even after being informed about the inspection.

The report states that the warden visited the hostel very rarely and students were served the basic minimum food only on days when she visited the hostel. It adds that firewood was being used at the kitchen in spite of the availability of a LPG gas stove.
Moreover, only 10 students of the registered 50 are residing in the hostel, but the records submitted every month claim expenses for 50 students.

Discrepancies

The Tahsildhar found discrepancies in the statements given by the wardens and D group employees of the hostels and the facts mentioned in the documents submitted by the TAPCMS and Janatha Bazaar. In view of this, the report concludes that the findings indicate that the supplies provided to these hostels were being misused by the wardens.

Despite these conclusive findings that clearly point towards the corrupt practices of the wardens, no action is likely to be taken at the earliest.

The present Deputy Commissioner N Prabhakar has already been given his transfer order and is on leave, and any action will be taken only after the new deputy commissioner takes charge, sources in the DC office said.