BENGALURU: A liquor store and a students’ hostel are located in the same building at KR Pura in the city, raising questions about such an arrangement.
The government runs awareness programmes to prevent minors from consuming alcohol and to curb drug use. But for the sake of money, government officials have set up a BCM hostel in a building that houses a bar in K R Pura. There are more than 100 students living in this hostel.
The Post-Matric Boys’ Hostel of the Department of Backward Classes Welfare, located in Avalahalli, K R Puram (Hostel ID: BCW 2585), is situated in the building where a liquor shop, bar and restaurant are also functioning on the main road of Hoskote Highway. The noise and fights of people drinking day and night are disturbing the students’ studies and sleep. The bar is on the ground floor, while the hostel is on the upper floors.
The bar in this private building opened just three months ago. The hostel, however, has been here for the last two years. Since it is a private building, the students are demanding that the hostel be shifted elsewhere. But neither the hostel warden nor the concerned department officials have paid attention to this.
Students groups say the welfare and academic interests of the students are being neglected. A hostel that is supposed to support students’ learning has now turned into a bar and restaurant. The concerned authorities need to wake up to this immediately. Action should be taken against those responsible for creating such a situation, they added.
Venkob, a student activist, said, “Why are the government guidelines not applied to BCM hostels? Students come to these hostels from different corners of the state and this kind of an arrangement should be stopped. How will the students study in such an environment? Immediate action should be taken against those responsible, or else we will launch an agitation”.
