Tamil Nadu Backward Classes Welfare Minister R.S. Rajakannappan announced schemes in the Assembly on Friday for students of the Backward Classes and Denotified Communities staying in hostels across Tamil Nadu.
He said e-libraries would be set up for students staying across 275 college hostels at a cost of ₹2.20 crore (₹80,000 per hostel) through which students could access books available online at the Arignar Anna Centenary Library and other libraries. Hostels where the strength of the students was dwindling would be refurbished and around 15 hostels would be constructed in places where they were required at a cost of ₹1.48 crore.
Female college students would be allowed to occupy 3,224 vacancies in school hostels, at a cost of ₹48.36 lakh, to encourage those from the Backward and Most Backward Classes and the Denotified Communities. Buildings would be constructed at a cost of ₹6.75 crore for two hostels which were now operating from rented premises.
The government announced that three Kallar Higher Secondary Schools in Theni and Madurai districts would be converted into residential schools at a cost of ₹1.17 crore.
The government would set aside ₹9.34 crore for the Backward Classes and ₹1.26 crore for the Most Backward Classes and Denotified Communities for building 62 hostels which were now operating from rented properties. It decided to form 25 groups of 10 laundry workers and tailors each and set up modern laundromats and readymade garments units at a cost of ₹75 lakh each.
