Jamshedpur: Students staying at the Adivasi Welfare Hostel in Karandih can look forward to better days with the state welfare secretary directing East Singhbhum on Friday to begin repairs of the facility after which it could be handed over to Kolhan University for regular maintenance.

"I have asked district welfare officer Biswanath Maheshwari to prepare an estimate of repair work needed at the hostel; both civil and electrical. We will sanction funds and inform the deputy commissioner," welfare secretary Himani Pande said, reacting to Friday's report in The Telegraph highlighting the plight of 250 students who are living in the hostel with seeping walls and slithering snakes.

Pande said she had asked district officials to begin talks with varsity authorities so that once the hostel was repaired, it could be handed over to its affiliate, Lal Bahadur Shastri Memorial (LBSM) College, for regular maintenance.

Maheshwari, who is also deputy development commissioner, said he had already sent two engineers to inspect the Karandih facility.

"I have sent a junior engineer of National Rural Employment Programme and an assistant engineer to the hostel. They will prepare a detailed estimate of repairs needed. I will also speak to the college principal in a day or two about new rules for hostels framed last year in which private colleges not only have to depute hostel wardens or superintendents but also manage day-to-day affairs of hostels," he said.

Maheshwari said the college would have to arrange a full-time cook for the hostel after its formal handover, which, he explained, had not been done and was the reason behind its neglect.

"Kolhan University is well aware of the new rules of welfare hostels and after repair and a formal handover, the college will look after day-to-day affairs of the hostel," he added.

LBSM College principal Amar Singh had refused to accept responsibility for the sorry state of affairs at Karandih hostel. "It is called Adivasi Welfare Hostel. So maintenance has to be done by the welfare department," he had told The Telegraph on Thursday.