Maharashtra's 'ghost hostels' received Rs 1.62 cr govt funding in four years: CAG report

Mumbai, Jul 13 (PTI) Dilapidated, locked buildings and dust-covered, empty beds. The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has unmasked six "ghost hostels" in Maharashtra that quietly received Rs 1.62 crore in government funds over four years without housing a single student. The CAG's compliance audit report 2024, tabled in the state legislature on July 10, highlighted serious deficiencies in infrastructure, safety, hygiene and financial management in government-run and aided hostels meant for students from backward and economically weaker sections. "The Department of Social Justice and Special Assistance disbursed Rs 1.62 crore to non-functional entities over four years," the CAG report stated, describing the six institutions as "ghost hostels" and pointing to a blatant misappropriation of public funds. As of March 2024, Maharashtra had 443 government-run and 2,388 government-aided hostels catering to 1,21,971 boys and 40,543 girls. The state spent Rs 2,321 crore on these hostels during the audit period. The CAG's audit covered physical inspection of 18 government-run and 21 government-aided hostels. The report cited Modikhan Hostel in Jalna as one of the fraudulent institutions, noting that the building was dilapidated and locked with no signs of occupancy, though the records showed 38 students and a superintendent. It noted that the state government continued to release Rs 18 lakh in honorariums to the hostel over four years. As per the report, the CAG team found dusty beds with no occupants at a hostel, built for 24 students in Jafrabad (Jalna), and had uncovered similar "ghost" hostels at four in Jalna, and one each in Buldhana and Latur. The auditor also flagged widespread shortcomings in government hostels, saying many lacked dining halls, libraries, computer laboratories, CCTV surveillance, daily newspapers, televisions and power backup. Regular medical check-ups were virtually absent, while students in four hostels had to sit on the floor for meals due to a lack of tables and chairs, the report stated. It said that accessibility norms were violated in some hostels at Ahilyanagar, Dharashiv, Jalna and Nagpur, where differently-abled students were allotted rooms on upper floors despite rules requiring ground-floor accommodation. The CAG further noted that only 46 of the 280 government hostels, equipped with biometric attendance systems, had functional devices, and found inadequate sanitation, poor-quality food, lack of clean drinking water, insufficient lighting and failure to maintain the mandatory one-month buffer stock of food grains at a few other facilities. The report also criticised the administration over the poor use of funds, noting that Rs 56.65 crore out of the Rs 487 crore allocated for government hostels in 2023-24 remained unspent. It said nearly 8,930 students across 117 talukas were deprived of hostel facilities due to the government's failure to implement the policy of establishing one government hostel in every taluka. According to the CAG, 49 government hostels were functioning without superintendents, while five girls' hostels had male superintendents in charge. The auditor also said the state's target of constructing 500 government hostels by 2020 remained unfulfilled, with only 443 hostels established despite funds having been sanctioned for them, adding that construction delays had undermined the objective of expanding student welfare infrastructure. PTI ND ARU