Subpar food served in hostels for poor students, admits social justice minister

The social justice department runs 443 student hostels across Maharashtra, which includes 230 hostels for boys and 213 hostels for girls. A total of 23,208 male students and 20,650 female students live in these hostels

MUMBAI: Social justice minister Sanjay Shirsat on Monday admitted that the quality of the food being supplied to poor students’ hostels run by his department was of a very low standard. Promising to upgrade the quality, he announced that his department would fix the grade and brands of ingredients such as rice, wheat and pulses that went into the preparation of the food. He also announced that the state government would accommodate 25,000 more students in the new hostels to be set up by the social justice department.

Subpar food served in hostels for poor students, admits social justice minister

The social justice department runs 443 student hostels across Maharashtra, which includes 230 hostels for boys and 213 hostels for girls. A total of 23,208 male students and 20,650 female students live in these hostels.

Leader of the opposition Ambadas Danve on Monday raised the issue of the deficient condition of one such hostel in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar. “Poor-quality food is being supplied to the students and the infrastructure and other facilities are also not good. What action is the government going to take against the officials responsible for this?” he asked. In response, Shirsat informed the House that the commissioner for social welfare had probed the incident and suspended the chief of the hostel. He added that a penalty of ₹1.5 lakh had been levied on the company responsible for the cleaning of the hostel, and a ₹5-crore revised budget had been approved for its repair and renovation work.

While replying to questions on the rundown condition of social justice department-run student hostels elsewhere in the state, Shirsat admitted that substandard food was being served there. “When we conducted surprise checks there, we found that the quality of food served was bad,” he admitted. “At some places, we found that the rice used was the inferior variety that is given through the public distribution system. This is not acceptable. To ensure that students get good food, we will fix the quality of the ingredients used such as pulses, rice and wheat.”

Shirsat also informed the House that the social justice department planned to open around 125 hostels in different parts of the state, and added that a provision of ₹1,500 crore had been allocated for this. “New hostels equipped with modern facilities will be established wherever there is a demand,” he said. “The social justice department is working to develop model hostels.”

The minister also announced that the admission process for hostels would not be handled at the Mantralaya level but would be delegated to the commissionerate of social justice in order to simplify and decentralise the procedure. He added that the department would frame guidelines to prioritise admissions at hostels near colleges for easier access and to ease the burden of transport costs on students.