Hyderabad: To ensure safe accommodation for working women residing in hostels in Hyderabad and paying guest facilities, the Safe Stay Audit Programme was launched on Friday, November 15 by the Society for Cyberabad Security Council (SCSC) Women’s Forum in collaboration with Cyberabad police and SHE teams.
Project Safe Stay aims to ensure that all hostel safety protocols as set by the Cyberabad police. The safety commandments focus on secure living conditions, which are verified through audits of these facilities. In 2019, five audits covered 267 facilities, and the sixth audit is scheduled from November 2024 to January 2025.
This audit schedule will be announced soon which will target facilities in six clusters around the Madhapur zone.
The programme kicked off with an induction event where 50 volunteers from various organizations, SCSC traffic volunteers, and the Anusandhan team came together to prepare for the audit of hostels in Hyderabad, which will assess the safety parameters of accommodation facilities.
On August 13, the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) conducted surprise inspections at ten government hostels including two hostels in Hyderabad.
The ACB teams were assisted by an inspector of legal metrology, a sanitary inspector, a food inspector and an auditor to check the quality, and quantity of the food, sanitation conditions, students’ attendance particulars and hostel records.
ACB raids expose poor hygiene at hostels in Hyderabad, other Telangana districts
The inspections revealed several irregularities, such as inflated student numbers, poor hygiene in kitchens, storerooms, washrooms, and toilets, a lack of drinking water supply, and poor lighting and ventilation in rooms. Additional issues at hostels in Hyderabad included the failure to maintain proper food menus and the neglect to provide daily eggs and milk.
The conditions of bathrooms in the women’s hostels were found to be unusable, and there was a lack of maintenance for the 18 required registers and records. There is a huge difference in the weights of commodities compared to the registers. Misappropriation of funds in purchases was also noticed.
