Students hit by dysfunctional water heaters, delay in supply of blankets

While people elsewhere in the district are forced to remain indoors till 10 am because of the chilling cold, the plight of students staying in hostels run by SC, ST and BC welfare departments in the district is miserable.

Mancherial: Students from SC, ST and BC hostels in the district are facing inconvenience due to dysfunctional solar water heaters and delay in supplying blankets by the State government, even as winter is gathering strength with minimum temperatures here hovering around 13 degrees Celsius.

While people elsewhere in the district are forced to remain indoors till 10 am because of the chilling cold, the plight of students staying in hostels run by SC, ST and BC welfare departments in the district is miserable. They are struggling to handle the chilly weather conditions, in particular to take a bath in the morning.

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Lately, students of Ashram hostel in Dandepalli mandal centre are taking cold showers in an open place as the solar water heater in the hostel was not repaired. They said the water heaters were developing glitches at regular intervals. Taking a bath with cold water in an open space near their hostel was inevitable for them. Bathrooms were insufficient, they stated.

The district has 16 Ashram schools attached to hostels and two post-matric hostels, offering education to 3,249 students from Scheduled Tribes. Except for hostels in Luxettipet and Kawal, no hostel is equipped with a functional solar water heater. The hostels were provided with the water heaters in 2016. However, officials have been lax in ensuring timely maintenance of the heaters.

Similarly, 1,237 students studying in 15 pre-matric and eight post-matric hostels run by SC welfare department have no option but to have their bath in chilling cold water. Only 15 hostels have solar water heaters. However, 14 heaters were damaged by monkeys, while only one heater at a hostel in Donabanda in Luxettipet village is functional.
Meanwhile, girl students from Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya are facing a similar pathetic situation. Fourteen out of the total 18 vidyalayas have solar water heaters. However, water heaters in four schools are functional, resulting in problems for the inmates in the winter.

At the same time, the students accommodated in the hostels are unable to have a sound sleep at night as they are using bed sheets brought from their homes in place of woolen blankets distributed by the government. Students said that they were taking baths either in the afternoon and on alternate days.

When asked, SC Welfare deputy director P Ravinder Reddy said steps were being taken to repair the water heaters and to avoid inconvenience to the students. He stated that monkeys were damaging the heaters. Alternative facilities were being created in hostels that had dysfunctional water heaters.