Pics: Spoorthi Ullal
Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (SB)

Mangaluru, Aug 1: History repeated during a meet presided over by V S Ugrappa, chairperson of the expert committee on prevention of sexual violence against women and chidren, here on Tuesday August 1, when an official fainted during the meet.

Sundara Poojary, deputy director of women and child welfare department, collapsed after he was unable to reply to question posed by Ugrappa during the meeting. He was rushed to hospital and is said to be recuperating.

In January 2016, the same person had collapsed when he was grilled by Ugrappa during a meeting.

Presiding over the meeting on Tuesday, Ugrappa said that earlier in the day, he visited Alva's campus which has been in the news over the death of its student Kavya. Elaborating on his findings, he said, "During my visit to Alva's College at Moodbidri in the wake of Kavya's death, my committee members and I found many violations of academic rules and government orders.

"They (Alva's management) do not have permission to run a residential school. Now they are running a hostel which is situated on the fifth floor of the school building. They did not obtain permission for this hostel. Construction of a hostel on the fifth floor is also a serious violation of law. During my visit, I came to know that parents also stay in the hostel rooms. The rooms are very dirty and messy. I wonder about the management's style of running this hostel.

"Secondly, the teaching and non-teaching staff are getting very low salaries as compared to the standard pay scale. The heavy work pressure is their other complaint. I wonder why the district administration never bothered about these things. First of all, the district administration should clarify as to who gave permission to run it as a residential school and construct a hostel on the fifth floor. Why are staff gettng such low salaries," he questioned.

Expressing his ire at the district administration and the district education department, he said, "The district administration and the district education department have completely failed to monitor and prevent illegalities going on in Alva's College. The education department itself does not have complete details of how many residential and non-residential schools are operating in the district. Prima facie, Kavya's death looks suspicious, so police should investigate the case carefully and thoroughly. We have received a report that many deaths have happened in the same institution, so there is a need for proper investigation."

He then gave stern warnings to the ZP CEP, officials and the district education department officials and took them to task for their ignorance and lack of knowledge of their own departments. He asked various questions related to Alva's College building and staff salaries, but the ZP CEO even failed to answer under which panchayat the campus was located. The education department officials gave confused replies on salary details of teaching and non-teaching staff. Finally, they admitted that they were aware of the illegalities in the Alva's Institutions, but failed to answer on what steps had been taken to check the same.

In response to Ugrappa's questions, deputy commissioner Dr Jagadeesh assured that investigation will be done on the issues raised in the meeting.

Police commissioner Suresh Kumar, members of expert committee on prevention of sexual violence against women and children Vinisha Neera, Prabha, Dr Leela Sampige, Jyothi and others were present.