An empty gunny bag fetches more money?

ADILABAD: While the government on one side is spending crores of money for the development of social welfare hostels in the state for Tribal students, the hostel authorities, on the other, are making money by selling empty gunny bags.According to sources, Tribal welfare hostels are supplied rice, grains and other food items in gunny bags by the Girijana Coorperative Corporation (GCC).They receive a supply of nearly 900 quintals of grains every month.However, the authorities, after emptying the bags, have to return them to the government or else pay a fine of Rs6 for one bag.There are a total of 151 tribal welfare hostels under the Integrated Tribal de v e lopment Ag enc y (ITDA) which have housed about 35,000 tribal students.Each hostel has 200 students and gets a supply of 90 bags (each of 50 kg rice) a month where three are used each day.The hostel authorities are not returning the bags to the government and instead selling them in the market for Rs 13 each. The amount made by tribal welfare hostel managements by selling gunny bags sums upto Rs 21.2 lakh. This apart, the hostel managements are not paying fines nor are they returning them to the government, sources alleged. It is also learnt that this practice of selling gunny bags has crept to other welfare hostels in the district too. Uttnoor ITDA deputy director Sarveshwar Reddy demanded the hostel wardens to return gunny bags to the government.