Ongole: The social welfare minister Dr Dola Sree Bala Veeranjaneya Swamy conducted a surprise inspection of the Social Welfare Girls Hostel near Ambedkar Bhavan here on Friday.

Accompanied by collector A Thameem Ansariya, he thoroughly examined the ongoing renovation works. He said that the state government has unprecedented plans, including sanctioning Rs 143 crore this year specifically for hostel renovations and improvements. The minister revealed that renovation works worth over Rs 9.30 lakh are currently underway at the hostel, with an additional Rs 30 lakh allocated for constructing two new rooms.

He emphasised Chief Minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu’s vision of empowering students from welfare hostels to achieve greater heights through quality education. Learning that 21 students studying in the tenth grade are residing in the hostel, the minister expressed hope that they would achieve excellent results in their first attempt, emphasising the government’s commitment to their academic success.

Collector Thameem Ansariya reported that the hostel’s development work is half-completed. She plans to finish the remaining work soon. Within the next four days, she promised to distribute all-in-one guidebooks for tenth-grade students.

District Social Welfare Officer Lakshma Naik, Assistant Director of Disabled Welfare Department G Archana, APEWSIDC Executive Engineer Bhaskar Babu, and other officers participated.

Minister DSBV Swamy, collector A Thameem Ansariya interacting with students at Social Welfare Girls’ Hostel in Ongole on Friday