Rayagada: The district administration is working to ensure better hygienic conditions at sevashrams, the residential schools meant for SC and ST students.

As part of this plan, the administration has installed reverse osmosis (RO) plants in at least 58 sevashrams to ensure purified drinking water for the students.

Officials said each of the RO plant had been installed at a cost of Rs 2.74 lakh and have the capacity to treat 1,000 litre of water in a batch.

"As most of the sevashrams lie in interior areas, the availability of safe drinking water has always been an issue. Hence, it was decided to install RO plants at the sevashrams," said Rayagada collector Guha Poonam Tapas Kumar.

These sevashrams are run by the state's SC and ST development department.

"Apart from the sevash-rams, the RO plants have been installed in at least 17 hostels where the SC and ST students stay but study in schools run by the education department," said Muralidhar Swain, project administration, ITDA, Rayagada. "In the next phase, RO plants will be installed in more schools of the district."

While the sevashrams have been equipped with high-mast lights, the administration is giving facelift to the dining halls at the centres.

"As many as 734 specially designed dining tables made from steel have been supplied to the sevashrams and the dining halls have been refurbished," said Swain.

He also hinted at equipping the sevashrams with smokeless ovens so that food could be cooked with minimum use of firewood and keep the environment clean.