DW&CDA toserve notices on unauthorised hostels

VIJAYAWADA: The District Women and Child Development Agency (DW&CDA) has decided to serve notices on unauthorised women’s hostels in the city. According to official sources, there are 134 working women’s hostels in city. But they are not attached to any educational institution.The managements of hostels with a capacity ranging from 50 to 100, have not taken any permission from the authorities concerned to run them. Even after the rape and murder of Ayesha Meera, a 19-year-old pharmacy student, in a women’s hostel at Ibrahimpatnam in 2008, no hostel management in the city has set up proper security apparatus to prevent recurrence of such incidents.According to police sources, several women’s hostels do not have even night watchmen to ensure the security of inmates, forget about CC cameras and other advanced surveillance equipment.Apprehending threat to the inmates of unauthorised women’s hostels due to lack of proper security, city police commissioner N Madhusudhan Reddy had urged district collector SAM Rizvi to look into the matter. The collector held a meeting with the DW&CDA project director, city police commissioner and other officials concerned on February 8 to discuss the steps to be taken to rein in unauthorised women’s hostels.It is learnt that the collector directed the DW&CDA to serve notices on managements of unauthorised working women’s hostels in the city asking them to first apply for licences. The DW&CDA has decided to serve notices on managements of the unauthorised hostels as per the AP Women’s and Children’s Institutions (Licensing) Rules, 2010. The rules are framed on the lines of the Women’s and Children’s Institutions (Licensing) Act, 1956.The state government issued a Government Order (GO) in this regard in June 2011. According to the GO, women’s hostels should have a secured premises with all basic facilities. Individuals or institutions who want to set up a women’s hostel should get a licence from a committee consisting of the district collector, superintendent of police or the police commissioner and DW&CDA project director.Speaking to Express, police commissioner N Madhusudhan Reddy said they were worried about the security of the inmates in the unauthorised women’s hostels. “We do not have complete information about the unauthorised women’s hostels in the city. Hence, there is an urgent need to ensure that all the women’s hostels get licences and set up proper security apparatus to better protect the inmates in the wake of rise in crime against women,” he said.