Rains are the worst enemy for students living in state-run hostels with cracked roofs and damp walls in the capital city.

The inmates of Veer Budhu Bhagat Adivasi Hostel and Bhagirathi Girls' Hostel on Ranchi Women's College campus vented their grievances before JVM president and Jharkhand's first chief minister Babulal Marandi who visited them along with former HRD minister and party leader Bandhu Tirkey on Wednesday.

All these hostels are run by the state welfare department.

Around 300 odd students living in Veer Budhu Bhagat Adivasi Hostel, opposite chief minister Raghubar Das's official residence at Morabadi, are compelled to put up with the pitiable living conditions because they can't afford to stay in private hostels or houses.

"Not even a single room is safe in this building. Water keeps dripping through cracked roofs. The damp walls have destroyed our clothes, books and other belongings," Mansa Ram Hansda, a post-graduate student at Ranchi College, said.

" Yahan chirag taley andhera wali halat hai (its' always the darkest under the candle)," Balbal Singh Kuntia, another student of Ranchi College who lives here, said.

He said the chief minister had last year visited the hostel and promised measures but things remained the same. "Our studies are getting hampered."

The students of Bhagirathi Girls' Hostel said they had lodged a complaint about the poor infrastructure at the Raj Bhavan last year.

"Governor Droupadi Murmu was moved by our plight when she came here and said the building would soon be repaired but nothing happened," one of the students said.

The condition of over 400 tribal youths residing in the cluster of three hostels on Jail Road is no better.

The accommodations for adivasi boys - Swarnarekha Postgraduation Hostel, Yaduvansh Adivasi College Hostel and Kartik Oraon Adivasi College Hostel - are anything but fit to live in with leaking roofs, crumbling ceilings and peeling plasters.

"The construction and maintenance of government-run hostels are a big scam in Jharkhand. The welfare department had spent Rs 13 lakh for the repair of roof and other damaged portions of Swarnrekha hostel barely eight months back. But the construction materials used were of poor quality. We don't have the stamina to fight with the government and the syndicate of contractors," hostel inmate Krishna Baraiak, who is pursuing research work from Ranchi University, said.

Echoing the sentiments of the students, Marandi said the buildings were unfit to live in and could collapse any moment. "It seems the government has no concern for tribal students. It should pay attention to the situation," he told The Telegraph.

Admitting the problem, state welfare minister Louise Marandi said the successive governments constructed hostels but did not formulate any policy for maintenance.

"My department has decided not to build any new hostel. This financial year, we have decided to renovate or reconstruct existing hostels across the state. We are in the process of floating a tender for reconstruction of Bhagirathi hostel. We are doing survey of all hostels that need to be repaired," she said.