PG Hostel in Bettiah. Picture by Satyendra Nath Sharma

Bettiah, Aug. 29: The students’ hostels run by the state welfare department at the West Champaran district headquarters are crumbling. The department, according to government records, controls nine hostels, but except Jagjivan hostel in Bettiah and three others in Bagaha, Harnatand and Rampurwa, the rest are in a shambles.

The condition of these students’ hostels, which are practically abandoned, is fast deteriorating for want of maintenance. In absence of a superintendent, the department has made an ad hoc arrangement for Jagjivan hostel to be run by a student leader. According to the student leader, Ajay Kumar Paswan, the hostel, which lacks a mess, was almost on the verge of collapse a few months ago. A committee of the Assembly came to review the condition of the hostel and recommended repairs so as to make it habitable. It warned the officials concerned on the urgent maintenance required for the crumbling hostel.

Speaking about the living conditions in the hostel, the student leader said the sole person posted as the caretaker and the cook hardly visits it forcing boarders to cook by themselves most of the time.

He told The Telegraph: “The students living in this hostel are provided only chowkis (wooden cots) in the name of furniture, while no one in the district welfare office is in a position to detail essential furniture required in hostels as compulsory accessories for students.”

“Altogether, 70 students stay in this hostel against a capacity of 50 beds,” said Paswan, adding that other hostels owned by the welfare department in Bairiya, Pakhnaha, Narkatiaganj and Ramnagar in this district are run only on papers.

When asked, the district welfare officer, Ram Ekbal Ram, told The Telegraph: “About six months ago, a team from the National Planning Commission, New Delhi, had visited the district for strengthening the condition of students’ hostels and left after inspection by giving a number of assurances for welfare of students.”

Speaking about the pathetic condition of hostels in West Champaran for want of allotment, the welfare officer said he was hopeful about an improved scenario in days to come, but that too, only after the Planning Commission releases funds.

Regarding another 100-bed hostel, which has been constructed for students at the district headquarters and is awaiting inauguration for past several months, Ram said the hostel concerned has recently been handed over by the building construction department and only after completion of the required infrastructure for a hostel, would it be opened to accommodate boarders.