Congress leader seeks ban on co-living hostels in Hyderabad

Hyderabad: Indian National Congress leader V Hanumantha Rao on June 25 demanded that Telangana chief minister A Revanth Reddy and Information Technology Minister D Sridhar Babu take action against “coliving hostels in Hitech City,” which he alleged rent to both male and female residents.

Speaking to the press, Rao said, “It is not at all a time for coliving hostels in IT areas. Girls and boys should live separately. Even in university hostels, boys and girls stay separately. How is it possible now? How will Hyderabad become a number one city if we allow this to go on?”

Highlighting the recent wave of crimes of passion in Hyderabad, Rao further added, “Just at a time when husbands are killing wives, wives are killing husbands. This is no time for males and females to be living together.”

His concern over coliving hostels in Hyderabad comes amidst cases of killings as a result of domestic disputes being reported more frequently in the city. Two weeks ago, a man killed his wife in Saroornagar over her opposition to his calls to another; a few days later, a woman murdered her husband with poison over domestic violence in Saidabad. Last month, a woman killed her husband with two others after a conflict in the marriage, and staged it as an accident in Vanasthalipuram and a week before that, a man killed his jilted lover’s husband in KPHB Colony. 

All of the fears and anxieties expressed by Rao in his statement have been circulating in the zeitgeist since the truth of the Madhya Pradesh to Meghalya honeymooners’ murder case came out and shocked concerned citizens, the murder of Raja Raghuvanshi at the hands of his newlywed wife, Sonam, and her lover, Raj Kushwaha, ignited new kinds of tensions about relationships and domestic disputes.

Addressing similar concerns, Rao further added, “The illicit affairs concerning families are very concerning. I demand that IT minister Sridhar Babu take the matter seriously and undertake appropriate steps to prevent such (coliving) hostels from operating in Hyderabad.”

In a genuine and heartfelt plea to the public, Rao concluded by saying, “Don’t kill your sister, don’t kill your mother, don’t kill your husband, don’t kill your wife. I request news organisations and social media not to show such news as much.”