Mysore/Mysuru: Maintaining that new hostels that can accommodate over a thousand students will come up at five places in the State including Mysuru in the name of Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyaya, Social Welfare Minister Kota Srinivas Poojari said that the Government has sanctioned Rs. 100 crore for construction of new hostels and Rs. 150 crore for infrastructure improvement in hostels across Karnataka.

Addressing a press meet at the BJP office in Chamarajapuram here on Monday, Poojari said that this apart, 100 hostels in the name of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar and another 50 in the name of poet-saint Kanakadasa will be built for the benefit of students.

Maintaining that the Government is working to ensure that there would no complaints regarding hostel admissions from the next academic year, the Minister asserted that the Government has not withheld student scholarship as alleged by the Opposition.

Pointing out that hitherto, the SC/ST student scholarship (for students from 1st to 8th standards) was being distributed with funding support from the Union Government, he said that now the State Government will directly credit the scholarship to the Bank account of beneficiary students. Admitting that there was some disruption and confusion regarding the scholarship for the past two years due to COVID pandemic, the Minister said that all this have been overcome now.

Referring to the reservation quota hike for SC/ST communities, Poojari said, following the State Cabinet approval and support by all parties, the Government has the responsibility of getting it mandated under Schedule 9 of the Constitution.

MLA L. Nagendra, City BJP President T.S. Srivatsa, party leaders H.G. Giridhar, Vaneesh Kumar and Maheshraje Urs were present at the press meet.