Minister Kayalvizhi rejects Palaniswami's allegation on SC students' hostels

Chennai: Tamil Nadu Adi Dravidar Welfare Minister N Kayalvizhi Selvaraj on Monday dismissed Leader of Opposition Edappadi K Palaniswami's allegation of inadequate supply of non-vegetarian food in hostels run by her department as unfounded, baseless and diversionary.

The Minister said quality food, commensurate with student strength, is being provided to the hostels and students themselves could cross check the quantity and quality by way of an app.

Two central kitchens cater to the needs of 19 hostels in Chennai and quality food is ensured. For the hostel at Mylapore, which was specifically mentioned by the AIADMK chief to allege inadequate supply, food is supplied from the MC Raja Hostel campus at Saidapet as per requirements.

For renovation and maintenance work, for the first time in the history of the department, Rs 100 crore (2024-25) has been announced and work is set to commence in the shortlisted 520 hostels and the Mylapore hostel referred by Palaniswami is one of them, for which Rs 19 lakh has been set apart. As part of efforts to ensure compliance of norms, work is also on to install bio-metric devices and CCTV cameras at a cost of Rs 27 crore in all the over 1,000 hostels, she said in a statement.

Also, construction work is on to build hostels of excellence with all present-day amenities, on a par with privately run hostels. It includes new hostel buildings at MC Raja Hostel campus in Chennai at a cost of Rs 44.50 crore and similar facilities at Madurai, Coimbatore, Tiruchirappalli and the Nilgiris (Rs 100 crore).

"Hence, Palaniswami's statement is unfounded and baseless and is diversionary." Across the 1,331 hostels under the Adi Dravidar and Tribal Welfare Department in Tamil Nadu, 98,909 students are pursuing educational programmes.

On September 8, Palaniswami alleged inadequate supply of non-vegetarian food at a hostel here (Mylapore). Also, he had claimed that inmates of Adi Dravidar (Scheduled Castes) welfare hostels had unanimously alleged less fund allocation and sub-standard quality of food.

Palaniswami, reacting to the Minister's statement, said on Monday that he pointed out the grievances of the students and it was his party's duty as the main opposition.

"Rather than taking appropriate action to ensure facilities in hostels, is it fair to come up with counter-arguments," he asked.