ADW hostel shut; 20 SC, ST students in a spot

AROUND 20 SC and ST school students have been left in the lurch after the Adi Dravidar and Tribal Welfare (ADW) Department closed its boys' hostel at Noyal Nagar near Ondipudur in the city due to inadequate numbers of students.

- N DHAMOTHARAN @ Coimbatore

With schools reopening on Monday, district officers of the ADW department ordered the warden to close the hostel on the same day, citing fewer students. However, G Laxmi Priya, secretary of the ADW department, told TNIE she did not give any instructions but assured to look into this matter.

Without a place to stay, some moved to their friends' homes, and others returned to their own homes. M Sundar (name changed), a Class 12 SC student of the Government Higher Secondary School in Ondipudur, told TNIE that he had joined this hostel after his parents passed away when he was in Class 10, and he completed Class 11 while staying at the hostel. "After the summer holidays, I came to school from my native place, Mysuru, on Tuesday morning. I went to the hostel in the evening, but it was closed. I finally came to know that the hostel won't be open this year," he said.