Hyderabad, Aug 18 :
The Telugu Desam Party MLAs on Tuesday appealed to the state government to increase the mess bills of students in social welfare department hostels.
Raising this issue in the Assembly, they appealed to the Assembly Speaker Kiran Kumar Reddy to provide better facilities for students in the social welfare department hostels.
They demanded the state government take action to increase the hostel facilities for students belonging to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes communities and enhance the mess bills for students.
The TDP members said that there was no improvement in the hostel facilities at hostels meant for SC/ST students. The lack of hostels, especially in the north Andhra districts of the State, had affected students as they were forced to discontinue their studies before completing pre-university, he said.
They said that there had been a long-pending demand to construct new hostels and take steps to improve the facilities at the existing hostels. But there was no response.
They said that there was a need to sanction scholarships for every SC/ST student as most of them come from rural areas with poor economic backgrounds.