Overview
- The Comptroller and Auditor General's audit, tabled in the Maharashtra legislature on July 10, 2026, covers 2022–2024 and is based on physical inspections of 18 government and 21 aided hostels.
- The report says the state spent Rs 2,321 crore during the audit period and that, as of March 2024, Maharashtra had 443 government-run and 2,388 government-aided hostels serving 1,21,971 boys and 40,543 girls.
- Inspectors found chronic shortfalls in basic services and infrastructure including missing dining halls, libraries, computer labs, CCTV, power backup, regular medical check-ups, and cases where students had to eat on the floor.
- The audit identified six aided hostels that were locked or under construction yet received Rs 1.62 crore from the Department of Social Justice and Special Assistance, and found only 46 of 280 biometric attendance systems to be operational.
- The CAG also flagged governance failures such as Rs 56.65 crore unspent from 2023–24 allocations, about 49 hostels without superintendents, unmet expansion targets and no state response or concrete remedial measures reported as of mid-July.