Telangana High Court on Tuesday directed the State government to file within two weeks a report complying with the instructions contained in fourth chapter of Guidelines of the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights Act-2018.
A bench of Chief Justice Alok Aradhe and Justice N.V. Shravan Kumar passed this direction, after hearing an interim application filed as part of a PIL petition over providing facilities in government-run hostels for students as per the Act. Petitioner Guru Teja contended in his original plea that basic amenities like bathrooms and toilets were not available to residents of government operated hostels as per the norms prescribed in the Act.
The HC had earlier issued notices after hearing the PIL petition. However, the petitioner filed an interim application in the backdrop of nearly 300 students falling sick, some of them critically, due to food poisoning in hostels and residential schools in different parts of the State. The petitioner informed the court that food poisoning instances had gone up in the recent past suggesting that safety and health of the residents of hostels was not high on the priority of officials.
