HD Kumaraswamy (File photo)

BENGALURU: Chief minister HD Kumaraswamy on Tuesday said the state government will be implementing a “novel” idea of setting up general hostels across the 30 districts of the state to ensure that all communities and caste students can reside and study in the state.

“By declaring the SC or ST hostels in the state, it appears like we (government) are ourselves tagging these students and dividing them on caste lines. As a result, in an effort to blur the castelines in the state, we are going to start these general population hostels on a pilot basis,” said Kumaraswamy.

The CM said the project will be implemented with one general hostel in every district and shall be taken up in all the 30 districts of the state. Kumaraswamy has asked for an action plan on these model hostels in the next 15 days.

During the meeting of the deputy commissioners and chief executive officers (CEO) of the 30 districts, the CM has also asked the administration to make surprise visits to hostels and take action against negligent wardens and appoint staff on priority.

The administrations were also directed to consider the candidates’ interest to work while appointing hostel wardens.

At the other end, Kumaraswamy has also directed the district officials to ensure that all the government schools which are in a dilapidated condition are renovated and redeveloped by using the MLA funds in the region.

Later, he said a proposal is also being considered to keep a separate fund of rupees two to rupees three crore for the purpose of exigency, including repair of schools.

“While the separate emergency fund will be allocated to the districts, it is not meant only for loss of cattle or people dying due to lightning. The emergency funds up to the tune of Rs 50,000 to Rs one lakh also needs to be used to take up repair works on the government school infrastructure,” he said.

Meanwhile, Kumaraswamy said 1,112 government residential schools are facing problems with regard to allocation of lands and are operating in rented locations. Directions were given to the social welfare department to immediately take up the land problem and address it.

Earlier, deputy chief minister G Parameshwara and social welfare department additional chief secretary M Lakshminarayan indulged in a “war of words” with the former taking a dig at the senior IAS officer.

Parameshwara accused the IAS officer of trying to “slip away” from the responsibility of the department issues.

“You (Lakshminarayan) are very smart, as a result of which you have given a sly response to the expenditures on the Ganga Kalayana (borewells) scheme. You have not given any response on the atrocitiy cases against the SC/St communities. You have not given any response over why SC/ST hostels are operating out of rented accomodations, despite allocating funds. We have not called a meeting for these kind of responses,” said Parameshwara.

CM gives Rs 5 lakh for rare disease infected children

Chief minister HD Kumaraswamy on Tuesday announced a relief fund of Rs five lakh towards a couple from Savadatti taluk, whose two children were suffering from a rare disease called as “epidermolysis bullosa”, which cause the skin to be very fragile and to blister easily.

Kumaraswamy directed the district administration to also give employment for the father of the children in the local Savadatti government hospital and also ensure that daily care is given to the children in that hospital.

