Over 1.2 lakh students from 600 government schools in the city will face health hazards due to the unhygienic condition of toilets when schools reopen next month after the holidays. A project for maintenance of school toilets, estimated to cost less than Rs 1 crore, is yet to be approved by the primary education department.
The Hyderabad district collectorate had floated tenders for maintenance of toilets in government schools. About 15 agencies submitted their bids, quoting less than Rs 3,200 per school, far less than the Rs 4,500, which the GHMC pays private agencies to get its public toilets cleaned. The administration asked the Administra-tive Staff College of India to prepare documents for the project. It was approved by the special project di-rector, but the file is pending with primary education department. Even the exercise to provide free water connections to government schools has been stopped midway. In all, 164 government schools with 30,000 students in were to be provided with water and sewerage lines.