Babus rapped on condition in hostels by Andhra Pradesh High Court

By S A Ishaqui

Hyderabad, Feb 4 : The AP High Court on Friday expressed its deep displeasure at the way hostels are being managed across the twin cities and gave the state government a month to improve the conditions in the hostels.

In a virtual post-mortem of the state of affairs in various hostels across the twin cities, a bench comprising Chief Justice Madan B. Lokur and Justice P.V. Sanjay Kumar said that the officials of the social welfare department had filed a compilation of some photo copies and a bunch of GOs as counter affidavits. The bench was dealing with a taken up matter regarding the poor conditions of hostels in the twin cities.

Justice Lokur, apparently annoyed with the response by the babus, asked the authorities how much money has been spent on photo copies in a year and how many GOs are issued every year.
It may be recalled that on Wednesday, the court cautioned the authorities that if they did not come out with a proper action plan, it will deal with the issue seriously. The welfare babus, who have been already fined Rs 5,000 for not filing their counter affidavit, submitted their report on Friday.

Pointing out to a flaw in the reports, Justice Lokur said, “On one hand it is being stated that no repairs are required, and on the other hand you are assuring that repairs will be completed in a month.”
Referring to statistics pertaining to expenditure of funds for the past five years, the CJ said “not a single paisa had lapsed in the budget for the last five years. Where is all this money is going? Someone has to advise the World Bank on how to make use of your services for management of funds.”

He asked the authorities, “How do you manage that when the best economic minds cannot? You must serve as advisors to the World Bank.” Referring to the difference in the figures pertaining to providing bed sheets and other equipment, the CJ pointed out that the figures were more than the existing strength of inmates in a hostel.

Additional advocate-general B. Bhaskar Rao, told the court that the children were provided 2 pairs of sheets and 4 pairs of clothes each. He also said that the government is proposing to increase the diet charges and also introduce a ‘Green Channel Scheme’ to improve the conditions in hostels. This left the CJ wondering if there is any shortage of clothes in Andhra Pradesh. “Why have you not procured clothes for them even as the academic year is coming to an end,” he asked.