Ranchi, March 15: Within days of MBBS classes resuming at Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS), it has come to light that the sanitation exercise carried out at the premier state-run college's hostels over a month ago was not foolproof.

Murmurs of the continuing squatter problem on the grapevine were corroborated by an inspection of all the seven hostels for boys by magistrate Sanjeev Lal today.

While Lal on record said students were adhering to the new room rosters, several vacant rooms were sealed once again in the presence of police, which subtly indicates that they were not purged of illegal occupants during the extensive February 6 drive in a ragging-violence aftermath.

"During inspection, I found all students (and interns) adhering to the new allotment (of rooms). However, there were around 50 rooms (in seven hostels), where belongings of students who occupied them earlier lay scattered. Some students present during our inspection promised to remove those items soon. The RIMS administration has been directed to ensure these rooms are emptied," Lal said.

If some RIMS officials are to be believed, the seven hostels have a total of 879 rooms. Of them 296 in hostels 1 to 4 are occupied by MBBS students. Postgraduate and medical interns occupy 327 and 90, respectively, in hostels 5 to 7. Simple arithmetic says 166 rooms are, hence, unoccupied. However, unconfirmed sources claim some of these were never sanitised.

Insiders also said that each and every hostel had illegally occupied rooms and the aggregate number would not be less than 70. "At hostel No. 6, locks of 15 rooms were broken. Had they been sanitised earlier, the RIMS administration would have had the key," said a PG student.

Among the disputed rooms at hostel 6, one (No. 89) seemed to belong to house surgeon Shyam Kishore Pathak, according to the nameplate; but he is not a bona fide inmate, according to the RIMS register.

With Bariatu OC Vinod Kumar in tow, Lal who began his three-hour drive around 11.15am conceded that more than 100 vacant rooms across the seven hostels were sealed in the presence of police today. "One key will remain with us and the other with RIMS. Whenever allotment of vacant rooms becomes necessary, the cradle management will have to inform the district administration," he said.

When confronted with claims of illegal occupancy, Lal said: "We have limitations. Documentation is very poor at RIMS. We have directed the cradle administration to provide us with a final list of students and interns staying in the hostels and the number of vacant rooms in each hostel. We will inspect the rooms according to the list once again."

All hostels at RIMS had been vacated on February 6, the same day when classes were adjourned sine die and 25 senior students, interns and junior doctors were suspended in a ragging and violence follow-up.

On February 8 and 9, postgraduate students and medical interns were re-allocated rooms through lottery in hostels 5, 6 and 7 in the presence of magistrate Lal and SDM Amit Kumar. MBBS students too had been relocated to hostels 1 to 4 through lottery before March 9.