Daijiworld Media Network - Bantwal (SP)

Bantwal, Jan 28: A hostel attached to the government polytechnic built by the union ministry for human resources at Arbigudde here has failed to achieve its objective of providing accommodation to girl students. As the girls have shown reluctance to occupy this hostel, since a year, it has been converted into a computer lab.

After the government polytechnic at Arbigudde got its own building, the girls’ hostel was built for facilitating the girl students. At a function presided over by the then MLA B Ramanath Rai, the then higher education minister Dr V S Acharya, had laid the foundation stone on April 23, 2011. The building was inaugurated on March 22, 2015.

During the last nearly six years, no girl student has stayed in this hostel, although the government spent crores of rupees on its construction.

The government polytechnic here has 580 boys and 93 girls. Most of these girl students have been staying at the BCM department's hostel. The hostel at the polytechnic is not getting any applications from the girl students even though the institution has been inviting applications every year, the lecturers reveal. It is said that BCM department hostels provide facilities free of cost, while students staying in polytechnic college hostel have to pay charges. The BCM hostel is at Panemangalore nearby. During examination time, a few students stay in the new building. It is also said that safety concerns, lack of proper compound wall etc are the other reasons for their disinterestedness.