With above 5.5 lakh tribal girls staying in Government hostels and stray cases of exploitation being reported, the State Government has issued a fresh directive for the implementation of the guidelines and standard operating procedures (SOPs) to ensure safety of the inmates.
Chief Secretary AP Padhi issued the direction while reviewing the activities of the ST and SC Development, Minorities and Backward Classes Welfare Department.
“Maintain strict vigil on implementation of the guidelines and SOPs for the safety of girls,” Padhi directed the concerned officers.
Padhi said that detailed guidelines and SOP on safety and security of boarders, safe cooking and serving, food menu chart along with code of conduct and duties of the each staff have been circulated to all concerned.
So far, 1,883 matrons and 276 auxiliary nursing mothers have been appointed for girls’ hostels, he said. Besides, a special School and Hostel Monitoring Unit (SHMU) has been set up in the department on 24x7 operation with a dedicated telephone.
ST & SC Development Secretary Surendra Kumar informed that a telephone is always connected through hotline with girls’ hostels from where any boarder can directly communicate her difficulties to the State headquarters for immediate assistance
Mr.Kumar said disbursement of scholarships to ST, SC and OBC students had been made timely and transparent through introduction of centralized disbursal system on DBT (Direct Benefit Transfer) mode.
A total number of 22,13,868 students had been covered under scholarship program in the academic year 2016-17, including 16,65,706 pre-matric and 5,48,162 post-matric students.
Of the total students, around 11,56,963 belongs to ST, 7,98,382 to SC and 2,58,523 to OBC, he said.
Kumar said steps are on to modify and upgrade the ‘Prerana’ portal and in its integration.
Students have been advised to link Aadhar number with the 'Prerana' portal while applying for the scholarships.
He further informed that two urban hostels have been set up in Bhubaneswar to facilitate higher education for ST and SC students. Presently around 700 students are residing in these hostels and perusing their higher studies, he said.