Over 150 students attend Karnataka residential school in cattle shed for 5 years; inquiry ordered: Report

More than 150 students of the Dr BR Ambedkar Residential School in Karnataka’s Hassan taluk district have allegedly been studying in a cattle shed-turned residential school with minimal facilities for classrooms, meals, sanitation, and sleeping arrangements, TimesNow reported.

Around 92 boys and 80 girl students of classes 6 to 10 have been accommodated in the cattle shed due to the absence of a separate school building in the Shantigrama village, according to the report.

Notably, stating the school arrangements as “inappropriate”, Madhu Bangarappa, Karnataka primary and secondary education minister reacted to the report and ordered a detailed inquiry from the concerned authorities, the report read.

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Govt pays Rs 1.08 lakh as rent for cattle-shed turned classroom: Report

“Whenever a new building is sanctioned for construction, temporary arrangements are made. But it is not right to make people study in sheds. I will seek details and speak. It is wrong to make students study in such a place,” Bangarappa said in the report.

The makeshift facility has only five toilets for 92 boys, whereas the girls are reportedly facing a lack of proper lavatory facilities, it added.

Moreover, the shed also lacks adequate ventilation and limited natural light, and class 6 students have reported being attending lessons while sitting on the floor, it said.

Furthermore, according to the social welfare department, the new school building is being constructed and officials reportedly said that the students were being stayed in the cattle shed because the alternative building could not be found, the report read.

In addition, criticising the Congress government over the Karnataka residential school situation, an opposition leader alleged that the government was paying Rs 1.08 lakh per month as rent for the cattle shed building, the report cites.