Bengaluru: Inmates of backward class hostels oppose shift to building 20 km from college
The students have got a one-week stay from the Karnataka High Court on the government decision. A student from the BCM Hostel in RT Nagar complained that the authorities were forcibly asking students to shift.
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Government hostel students protesting at Freedom Park in Bengaluru against shifting to new facility. (Express photo)
Inmates of hostels run by Karnataka’s Backward Class Welfare Department who have been asked to shift to a new hostel away from where they study got a one-week relief from the high court on Wednesday.
According to department officials, the students from six hostels in Bengaluru North taluk were asked to shift to a new government hostel at Muthugadahalli in Yelahanka taluk, which is a government property. The students said police were called in when they refused to leave the hostels.
A student from the BCM Hostel in RT Nagar complained that the authorities were forcibly asking students to shift. “There is no official announcement from the government or the department on shifting us from RT Nagar to Muthugadahalli. All they have is an ‘unofficial order’, which is merely typed out without any authorisation from government officials. The hostel is 20 km away from the college and it is nearly impossible to report to college or appear for examinations on time. This is on the outskirts of the city and there is no hospital or shops nearby,” said the student, who did not want to be named.
Hemanth N, a final-year B Sc student from Government Science College who stays in the hostel in RT Nagar, said, “We are requesting the authorities to postpone the shifting process until our examination is finished. Most of our exams are scheduled to be completed by September end. The authorities can then shift us from the first week of October. In fact, last week the taluk officers also visited our hostel and tried to take away the cots and beds. But we resisted their action by staging a protest. Running from pillar to post to request the government to put off the shifting process, I have lost at least one week of class.”
A department official in the taluk said, “We are expanding our hostel facilities to a new space and the new hostel can accommodate more students. If at all students find it difficult to travel, we will arrange pick-up and drop-off facilities.”
Another student complained, “I believe that the new hostel should have been at a shorter distance from my college located in central Bengaluru. But the new facility is at the edge of Bengaluru, where there is poor connectivity. Moreover, they are asking us to shift in the middle of the semester, when our exams are nearing.”
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