10 new hostels to come up for students in Tamil Nadu

Chennai: Minister for Adi Dravidar and tribal welfare, N. Subramanian, announced in the Assembly on Wednesday that 10 new hostels would be built at a cost of Rs 1.65 crore.

Of the 10, two will come up at Chennai — a post graduate students’ hostel and a research students’ hostel. Hostels will also be built at Tirunelveli, Namakkal, Tiruvannamalai, Dindigul, Pudukkottai, Tiruvarur, Dharmapuri and Krishnagiri.

The minister also announced welfare measures for students in the already existing 42 welfare hostels and 306 tribal residential schools in the state. “Steel plates and tumblers would be provided to the 2,782 students in welfare hostels and the 30,993 students in the residential schools at a cost of Rs 52 lakh,” he said. Another Rs 32 lakh would be allocated to provide raincoats to about 4,500 students from 89 residential schools.

Further, Rs 1 crore will be allotted to procure tailoring machines to be distributed among the Adi Dravidar, tribal and Dalit christian community, he added. Earlier, while making the announcements, he noted that the admission of students from the Adi Dravidar and tribal community had been increasing since 2012 after Chief Minister, J. Jayalalithaa, launched a welfare scheme for tribal youth in 2012.