post news network
Cuttack, April 8: The Orissa High Court Wednesday sought details of steps taken by the director general of police on the issue of illegal hostels in operation for boys and girls in Bhubaneswar and Cuttack. The High Court directed the state Home department to submit a report in this regard. The order was passed by a bench of acting chief justice PK Mohanty and justice Biswajit Mohanty.
According to a petition (WP-C/ 6299 of 2015) filed by advocate Shivshankar Mohanty, there are scores of illegal hostels in operation in the state especially in Bhubaneswar and Cuttack, without prior permission from the concerned authorities.
The petitioner, a practicing lawyer of the High Court, stated that the twin cities commissioner, in order to check criminal activities in private hostels in the twin cities, had forwarded a draft regulation entitled ‘‘Bhubaneswar-Cuttack Police Commissionerate (Registration / Licencing of Private Residential Hostels of School/College/Technical Education Institutions) Regulations 2013″ to state Home department for Gazette Notification in pursuance of Section 119 of the Orissa Urban Police Act, 2003. ‘‘But till now, the regulation has not yet been published in the official Gazette and pending with the state police, commissionerate and home departments, for which illegal hostels are thriving in the twin cities,’’ states the petition.
The PIL said several educational institutions and private firms have started operating hostels in the twin cities wherein scores of youngsters are residing, but the state government has not been making any attempt to register their names. This encourages private hostel operators to act at their own will.
Mohanty, in his petition, mentioned a mechanism, with which the hostel owners in the cities would be required to provide details of the occupants and also the physical details of each and every room in the hostel. This is meant to ensure that the hostels are not overcrowded. A system of imposing fine on defaulters is also mentioned in the petition.
