Absenteeism by wardens at social welfare hostels

Nizamabad: The wardens of social welfare hostels in the district have become totally indifferent in supervising the activities taking place in the hostels. It is alleged that they were not coming to the hospital and were running the hostels from home. In some cases, the in-charge officers or wardens are keeping their friends at the hostels to run the show. They are also taking a rented room to carry out their activities.

With the wardens remaining negligent or indifferent, the lower level staff in the hostels are having a field day. Such types of irregularities have come to the fore when The Hans India conducted investigations into their working.

This is the plight of almost all the social welfare hostels in Nizamabad and Kamareddy districts. Gradually, the faith of the inmates of the hostels and their parents is getting eroded.

Although the wardens have to be present in the hostels from 6 am to 9 pm, this guideline is being violated with impunity. The wardens are coming to the hostels and going whenever they like, monitoring the activities from a rented room.

A case in point is the Scheduled Castes Girls Hostel in Jukkal mandal, in which the hostels officer or warden Radha Rani comes once in a week. She was also made in-charge of the Girls Social Welfare Hostel in Mudnoor.

When reporters went to the hostel in Mudnoor, they were told that she was at Jukkal supervising the hostel there. But when they reached Jukkal, she was found to be missing and the staff there expressed ignorance about her whereabouts. As a result, the food was not being served according to the menu to the inmates.

Moreover, the students were warned not to reveal anything. Speaking to The Hans India here on Wednesday, the students lamented that they were not getting tasty food to eat and they did not know to whom they should complain.

Similarly, it was found that the warden of Khandeballor Scheduled Castes Hostel for Girls at Jukkal mandal was missing and not coming to the hostel regularly. On enquiry, it was revealed that he stays in Armoor and comes to the hostel twice a week.

Furthermore, in the Tribal welfare hostel at Kamareddy town, in which there are 89 inmates, there is no proper cook and some private fake individual was entrusted with the responsibility of preparing the food.

The official cook Narasaiah was not to be found and in his place, a benami, Butchaiah was doing the work. When the reports contacted the hostel warden Chiranjeevi, he said that Narasiah was unwell and that was why, Butchaiah was doing the cooking.

What is even worse is that the cooks are rearing the cocks and hens in hostel rooms meant for the students. The students expressed the hope that the government would take corrective measures and mitigate their hardships.

R Bhoopathi