Assembly seeks Bharat Ratna for Phule, Savitribai

Social justice minister Sanjay Shirsat on Monday admitted that the quality of the food being supplied to poor students' hostels run by his department was of a very low standard.

- Saurabha Kulshreshtha

MUMBAI: Social justice minister Sanjay Shirsat on Monday admitted that the quality of the food being supplied to poor students' hostels run by his department was of a very low standard.

Promising to upgrade the quality, he announced that his department would fix the grade and brands of ingredients such as rice, wheat and pulses that went into the preparation of the food. He also announced that the state government would accommodate 25,000 more students in the new hostels to be set up by the social justice department.

The social justice department runs 443 student hostels across Maharashtra, which includes 230 hostels for boys and 213 hostels for girls. A total of 23,208 male students and 20,650 female students live in these hostels.

Leader of the opposition Ambadas Danve on Monday raised the issue of the deficient condition of one such hostel in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar.

"Poor-quality food is being supplied to the students and the infrastructure and other facilities are also not good. What action is the government going to take against the officials responsible for this?" he asked.