Late yesterday evening, in a surprise visit to Gujjar-Bakerwal Hostel Poonch, MLA Shah Mohammad Tantray pulled up the Warden over pathetic state of affairs in the Gujjar-Bakerwal Hostel.The MLA was shocked over the revelations of students living in unbearable conditions bereft of power and water supply and filthy conditions in the Hostel premises. The students revealed before the MLA that the Hostel administration has not been extending Library and GenSet facilities to them and the food being served is not as per the instructions in vogue. ”I cannot see the future of these students being trampled with before my eyes”, he told the Warden while instructing him to put things right in the Hostel. Tantray asked him as to why he had not brought to his notice various issues regarding facilities in the hostel. “This was supposed to be an institution of excellence but the prevailing conditions are intolerable”, he said while ruing the fact that it has become a sort of solitary confinement for hapless children of poor parents.
Meanwhile, DDC Poonch sent a team of officers comprising Deputy Director Planning and Tehsildar Headquarters in the hostel premises to inspect facilities being provided to the students. The DDC has asked BMO Mandi and Assistant Commissioner Food Safety for monthly and fortnightly inspection of the hostel respectively.Situated in the heart of Poonch town, the Hostel which was meant to provide quality education to meritorious students of Gujjar-Bakerwal community, has become a place for loot and plunder on the behest of influential politicians, said a prominent social activist who appreciated the MLA and appealed him to use his influence to transform the institution into achieving its original objectives.