Congress stages walkout over residential schools issue

Hyderabad : Congress legislators, led by Nalgonda MLA Komatireddy Venkat Reddy, on Thursday staged a walkout from the Telangana Legislative Assembly in protest against not getting satisfactory reply from Social Welfare Minister Jagadish Reddy on the establishment of residential schools and colleges for the students of SC, ST, BC and minority communities .

On the clarification sought during the debate on Establishment of Residential Schools and Colleges, Komatireddy sought specific details of amount spent on construction of buildings and creation of infrastructure. He also sought details of teaching and non teaching staff and asked how many buildings out of 493 Residential schools established were owned by the government. He also asked at to why Rs. 100 crores were not released to the Osmania University which was announced on the occasion of university's centenary celebrations. He asked how many legislators have actually reviewed the conditions in the hostels and residential school buildings.

The Congress leader alleged that the students of Osmania University, who took active part in the separate Telangana struggle, were forced to take bath in open air and under tree. He said that the State Government should feel ashamed of such things. He asked as to why the government has not established the Skill Development Centers so far. He said there must have been at least one center in each mandal to provide opportunity for self employment and for creating jobs among the educated unemployed youths.

The Minister, in his reply, said that the government would be spending about Rs. 17,347 crore over a period of five years on residential schools and colleges. He said that the government was committed to provide better access to quality education from KG to PG, with absolutely no economical burden on the poor families.

G. Kishan Reddy of BJP, Sandra Venkata Veeraiah of TDP and Sunnam Rajaiah of CPI (M) also participated in the debate.