There are many illegal women’s hostels functioning in the Chennai city. Series of complaints have been received by the officials against the functioning of unauthorized women’s hostels is known. The sensational information is Chennai district administration has shut down 5 women’s hostels in Chennai in a crackdown on the illegal women’s hostels after receiving many complaints.
Surprise checks were conducted and it was fund that as many as 227 working women’s hostels have been found to be operating without compulsory registration. According to the Chennai collector, Mr. Shanmugha Suindaram, complaints were received against 7 women’s hostels and after enquiry was conducted closure notices were given to these hostels. He explained that out of 7 hostels 5 hostels are closed now and the remaining 2 hostels would also be shut down soon.
It is compulsory for all the women and children hostels to register under TN Hostels and Homes for Women and Children (Regulation) rules 2015. There was no information regarding the women’s hostel situated at Thiruvanmiyur. It is well known that this hostel got into controversy after it obtained a fake sanitary certificate from GCC for the sake of registration with the Chennai collectorate 2 weeks back. It has been shown by the official data that as many as 227 women’s hostels were operating without getting registered.
The point is the highest unauthorized women’s hostels are located in the IT hub in the Sholinganallur taluk and the number is 79 and Guindy as well as Velachery taluks have got as many as 23 and 20 women’s hostels respectively.
Chennai collector later expressed his thoughts and spoke about how civil and criminal action would be taken against these 227 hostels operating without any registration. The electricity and water supply to these hostels would be cut. He assured that surprise raids would be carried out in the Chennai city. He finally shed light on how special teams under deputy collector ranks would be handling these cases.
It has been mentioned by the official data that as many as 1050 working women’s hostels have filed applications for seeking registrations. From various departments such as fire and rescue services, GCC and revenue department etc, the hostels must get licenses and certificates are known. It was pointed out that those violators who are coming forward for getting hostels registered would be considered on merits with hefty fines.
Residents of Chennai would not have forgotten that in December in 2018, a working women’s hostel in Adambakkam made sensational news as the hostel had 9 hidden cameras at various places. Police arrested a 48 year old man who was the owner of this hostel in Adambakkam. The strict action on the unauthorized women’s hostels in Chennai got intensified only after the above said incident.