Ahead of the 2025-26 school year, the district administration has introduced new rules for coaching centers and hostels in Kota as part of the "Kota Cares Campaign." The goal of the campaign is to help reduce the living costs for students who come to Kota to prepare for competitiveexams.

Some important changes include removing the security and caution money fees from all 4,000 hostels in the city. Previously, hostels would charge these fees and refund them at the end of the year.

After meeting with people from the coaching industry, Kota DistrictCollector Dr. Ravindra Goswami announced that hostels can now charge a Rs 2,000 maintenance fee. The new rules also require hostels to install special anti-suicide ceiling fans and provide training for their staff on how to act as gatekeepers.

Students will get free entry to Chambal Riverfront and Oxygen Zone Park with a one-time pass. A helpdesk for the Kota Cares campaign will be set up at the railway station and bus stand. Hostels will also have CCTV and biometric systems installed.

Hostel staff will need to keep manual attendance at night, and there will be recreation areas in the hostels. Parents will also get receipts for all payments made.

Dr. Goswami said, "The Kota Cares campaign is working to improve the facilities and environment for students. With more students coming to Kota, better infrastructure has been built, and we are offering better housing and care in different areas of thecity. We are confident that students will receive great coaching along with a safe and comfortable place to stay."

This comes after the number of students coming to Kota for exams dropped from over 2 lakh to about 1.24 lakh in 2024-25. This caused a loss of about 50% in revenue, and many hostels had less than 40% occupancy.

Vishwanath Sharma, Sunil Agarwal, and Naveen Mittal from the Hostel Association said, "Hostels and PGs will now meet new standards for student care. We will work closely with the district administration and coaching institutes to make sure everything is in place."

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