Students show glasses of tap water and medical prescriptions of those who fell ill at Jackson Hostel in Patna, on Monday. Picture by Nagendra Kumar Singh

Patna, April 4: Several boarders of Jackson Hostel of Patna College have contracted jaundice over the past three or four months. At present, nine of them are infected with Hepatitis A virus.

Boarders complain that the food and water provided to them was unfit for human consumption.

Hospital authorities, however, claim that many people in the state capital are suffering from jaundice and the students at Jackson Hostel are no exception.

For students, this is the worst time to fall sick. The final year graduation examinations are going on. The exams for the first and the second year students are scheduled to start from April 13 and May 11.

Ranjan Shukla, one of the boarders, told The Telegraph: “The water provided to us is supplied through a pipeline that is leaky and passes beside drains. It is dirty, has a foul smell and is not fit for human consumption.”

If kept untouched in a glass for sometime, tiny particles accumulate on the surface of the water. Shukla added that the quality of water has deteriorated over the past month.

Anil Kumar, another student, said: “We have spoken to the college authorities and the hostel superintendent a number of times. But no action has been taken till now.

“Hostel superintendent Hira Mandal assured us that the letter submitted by the boarders has been submitted to the authorities concerned and our problem would be sorted out soon,” added Anil.

Mandal, however, refused to accept that the water supplied to the hostel was the main reason for the students falling sick. “Many people in Patna are suffering from jaundice. The hostel is not an isolated case,” said the hostel superintendent.

He added: “I visited the hostel and enquired about the water after receiving the complaint.”

The students who have been infected, however, do not agree with Mandal.

“I was diagnosed with jaundice two months back. My condition was very serious. My bilirubin count was 9.6, whereas the normal count should be less than one. For the past two months, I was at my home in Sheikhpura, as there is no one to look after me here,” said Ashish Kumar, a first year economics student.

But he had to return to Patna, as the examinations are close.

Another student Pranjeet Mishra had become so weak, after contracting jaundice that he could hardly get up and walk.

It is not only the water but the quality of food supplied to the hostel boarders is also too oily to be healthy, said the students.