Bhubaneswar: The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) exposed severe shortcomings in the construction and functioning of Scheduled Tribes Girls’ Hostels (STGHs) in the state.
The report highlighted issues ranging from incomplete infrastructure to a lack of basic amenities, affecting the safety and well-being of thousands of tribal girl students from 2009-10 to 2020-21. The CAG report was placed in the assembly on Saturday.
Between the financial years 2007-08 and 2020-21, the scheduled castes development, minorities and backward classes welfare department sanctioned Rs 857.15 crore for the construction of 1,524 STGHs.
Of these, 1,471 hostels were operational, while 53 remained non-functional by Mar 2022.
The audit found that Rs 5.32 crore was wasted on 13 incomplete hostels, with delays ranging from 1 to 12 years due to the department’s failure to address construction constraints.
The CAG also uncovered that 16 completed hostels, built for Rs 10.98 crore, were not handed over to schools because of missing boundary walls.
Nine other hostels, constructed for Rs 6.87 crore, were lying unused due to issues such as damaged toilets, incomplete flooring, faulty electrification, and defunct water supply systems.
Inspections of 69 STGHs revealed overcrowding in six hostels due to inadequate living space.
Basic amenities were found lacking in many hostels, as 18 hostels lacked purified drinking water, while in 10 hostels, water purifiers were non-functional for 3–9 months. In 26 hostels, there were toilet shortages, with deficits ranging from one to eight units. Similarly, three hostels lacked piped water supply, forcing students to fetch water from bore wells, while kitchen and dining spaces were unavailable in 39 and 41 hostels, respectively. “Thus, decent living conditions were not provided to these female students,” the CAG report said.
According to the CAG report, critical staff positions, such as wardens, cooks, and sanitary workers, were either vacant or inadequately filled in many hostels. In four hostels, female students had to cook for themselves due to the absence of cooks. Health check-ups were another neglected area, with 34 hostels not visited by medical officers or mobile health units in FY 2019-20, the report revealed.
The CAG report criticised the lack of inspections by officials. Project Administrators of Integrated Tribal Development Agencies (ITDAs), District Welfare Officers (DWOs), and Assistant DWOs conducted only 7–26% of the mandated inspections. Despite repair and maintenance needs, the ITDAs failed to forward proposals for fund sanctions to the SSD Department, it pointed out.