SC/ST students seek allocation of rooms at the Backward Class hostel in Erode

SC/ST students in Erode demand hostel rooms, seek reservation in BC hostel to continue studies.

Twenty-nine students from the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (SC/ST) communities on Monday demanded the district administration to allocate rooms for them at the Backward Classes (BC) hostel in Erode.

In a petition submitted during the weekly grievances redress day meeting at the Collectorate, they said that only the students from the BC and Most Backward Classes (MBC) were allowed to stay in the hostel. The students of SC/ST communities from Kallakurichi, Salem, Thanjavur, Dharmapuri, Ramanathapuram, Virudhunagar, Thoothukudi and Tenkasi, Namakkal, do not have hostel facility and many had to travel from their villages to the college in Modakkurichi every day. As their parents were daily wage earners, they could not spend on accommodation. Without hostel facility, they cannot continue their studies, the students said. They urged the District Collector to allocate rooms for them in the BC hostel, as he allegedly had the authority to execute 10% to 20% reservation for SC/ST students.