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Tottering walls, seeping ceilings, peeling plasters, naked wires and broken doors and windows will soon be things of the past at Adivasi Youth Hostel in Karandih.
The welfare department has promised to renovate the more than two-decade-old tribal students’ accommodation, 6km from Jamshedpur, in the start of the next fiscal. For starters, a team of engineers will visit the hostel within a fortnight to assess the condition of its three buildings and submit a report.
For the convenience of boarders, the department has also appointed a full-time cook on Saturday. He will render service from January 27.
The slew of measures in favour of the hostel’s 300 inmates who hail from Jharkhand, Bihar, Bengal and Odisha came within 48 hours of a report being published in The Telegraph. The January 19 article had exposed life on the edge at the government hostel, where crashing chunks of plaster have injured many a student, while damp walls and ceilings in close proximity to mangle of wires threaten electrocution.
State Adivasi welfare commissioner Praveen Toppo said that The Telegraph had indeed prompted the department to decide on Saturday that a recce by engineers was absolutely necessary.
“We have taken the matter (read report) seriously and have planned to send our engineers to the spot at the earliest. They are expected be there in two weeks. We will require separate assessment reports for the two old buildings built in 1986 and the new one that came up barely six years ago. The department will make a draft project for repair and get it sanctioned by the principal secretary,” Toppo said.
Commencement of construction work will, however, begin after March. The welfare commissioner said the principal secretary’s nod would lead to sanction of requisite funds for renovation and repair. “Work will start in early next fiscal owing to some technical difficulties in receiving the funds,” he added.
The department has also taken up the matter of no full-time cook at the hostel with the district welfare officer (DWO). East Singhbhum DWO Filbus Barla told The Telegraph that one Virendra Kumar Vishayi had been appointed cook and he would start service from Friday.
The minimum salary for a fourth-grade government employee, after implementation of the Sixth Pay Commission recommendation, is Rs 15,000-Rs 17,000 per month.
The Karandih hostel never had a government cook since it was established though all the three other state tribal accommodations — Jamshedpur Co-operative College (Bistupur), Ghatshila College and Baharagora College — have full-time ones.
Students had hired a private cook, Brihaspati Munda, for Rs 2,000. Barla said Munda’s name had been sent for consideration to the welfare department. “He may be appointed as a cook in hostels attached to government schools and colleges in the district soon,” the DWO added.
What other facilities can be provided to tribal students?Tell ttkhand@abpmail.com
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