Revanth Releases ₹60 Crore From CMRF For Welfare Hostels
This was the first time in the state’s history that money from the CMRF was being used for the benefit of students in welfare hostels: Sources
HYDERABAD: Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy on Monday released ₹60 crore from the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund (CMRF) to meet the emergency needs of hostels for BC, SC, ST, and minority welfare community students. The funds are being utilised for diet charges, payment of temporary staff salaries, motor repairs, and other urgent works in the residential hostels.
Sources said this was the first time in the state’s history that money from the CMRF was being used for the benefit of students in welfare hostels. Usually, the CMRF extends financial assistance to the poor and needy for medical treatment in private hospitals or during natural calamities.
At a review meeting with all welfare departments, the Chief Minister asked officials to introduce a facial recognition attendance system for students, teaching, and non-teaching staff in welfare hostels to ensure accountability. He also handed over cheques worth ₹60 crore.
Stating that welfare hostels should be upgraded by adopting technology to provide quality education, the Chief Minister directed the authorities to make arrangements for facial recognition of students, teaching, and non-teaching staff in every hostel.
The Chief Minister stressed that accountability and the availability of all data are essential to run hostels effectively and achieve good academic results. He instructed officials to develop an app to monitor the quality of food provided to students regularly. Several measures, he said, should be taken to ensure that students receive nutritious food with adequate calories and nutrients in their daily diet.
Revanth Reddy reviewed the supply of uniforms and books to students in welfare hostels and gave specific instructions to officials to upload details of hostel management and accommodation facilities on a central dashboard every day.
Emphasising the need to focus on students’ health, Revanth Reddy suggested developing a network between hostels and government or private medical colleges, community health centres, and area hospitals in every district. Officials were directed to organise medical camps in the hostels and ensure doctors were available during emergencies. Collectors and additional collectors in all districts were also instructed to visit hostels frequently and ensure that students receive better services.
The Chief Minister also proposed setting up a hotline to make doctors available online 24 hours a day and suggested using ed-tech tools to help students prepare for competitive exams. He said the services provided to hostel students should be publicised through social media to counter false propaganda and instructed officials to develop dedicated apps for these purposes.
Revanth Reddy directed chief secretary K. Ramakrishna Rao and special chief secretary (welfare) Sabyasachi Ghosh to submit an action plan covering scholarships, staff salaries, diet charges, construction costs, payment of dues, monthly operational expenses, and other financial requirements for BC, SC, ST, and minority hostels. Authorities were also asked to mobilise funds from centrally sponsored schemes and immediately release matching grants from the state government.
Before the review, special chief secretary Sabyasachi Ghosh gave a presentation on the conditions in the hostels. State BC Welfare Minister Ponnam Prabhakar, SC, ST and Minority Welfare Minister Adluri Laxman Kumar, chief minister’s adviser Vem Narender Reddy, state government advisar Shabbir Ali, CMO principal secretary V. Seshadri, CMO OSD Vemula Srinivasulu, and officials from BC, SC, ST, Minority, and Disabled Welfare Departments — Jyoti Buddhaprakash, B. Shafiullah, Anita Ramachandran, Kshitija, Nirmala Kranthi Wesley, and Krishna Aditya — were present.
