Tribal girls seek separate hostel sneak into Collectorate 

Sangareddy: About 30 girl students belonging to Scheduled Tribe (ST) community made their way into the District Collectorate on Tuesday without getting noticed by the security personnel at the main gate and made a sit-in at the lobby, shouting slogans and demanding the administration to start a hostel for girls who are enrolled in Intermediate and degree programmes in Sangareddy, much to the embarrassment of the district administration.

The incident happened just a day after an ST girls’ hostel was inaugurated by none other than Irrigation Minister T Harish Rao in Narsapur on Monday. Rajender Naik, belonging to Girijana Vidyarthi Sangam, who led the girls, claimed that despite submitting representations to Tribal Welfare Minister, Tribal Welfare Commissioner and the District Collector in the past, no effort was made to at least rent a private building to start a hostel, let alone building a new hostel.

He said about 100 girls had just enrolled in various courses in Sangareddy and that some of the girls were put in SC and BC hostels, which were already running beyond capacity. District Revenue Officer Dayanand spoke to the agitating students and asked them to give him a list of girls who were studying in Sangareddy and assured them that alternative arrangements would be made soon.