Jamshedpur, July 18: They toiled hard and cracked the Jharkhand Combined Entrance Competitive Examination (JCECE) in the fond hope of plum jobs in the future. But for 180-odd students of Government Polytechnic Adityapur dreams crumble every second much like the fragile and crisp building plaster.
Established in 1981, the oldest and arguably the most prestigious polytechnic school in the Kolhan region is today a tell-tale picture of government neglect.
The institution's administrative building and almost all classrooms have broken doors and damaged ceilings. The lone laboratory and the auditorium are in worse state, with seeping ceilings and flaking plaster baring the iron skeleton of the decrepit building. Hostels are no better either.
The last time the government had sanctioned funds ' Rs 42 lakh to be precise ' for renovation was in 2001-02.
Final-year students in four streams ' metallurgy, mechanical, electrical and information technology (replaced by computer science from this session) ' are worried about how to cope with technical challenges on the job given the fact that they are rarely able to attend practical classes.
On the other hand, freshers, who will be taking admission in a day or two, are equally anxious thinking of the three-year ordeal they have bargained for.
"Sir, just go and take a look at the laboratory, classrooms, hostels and the auditorium. We need not say anything more. I have been placed in Tata Refractories as a trainee diploma engineer, but I feel tensed thinking that I will cut a sorry figure on job because I have barely attended practical classes," said a student from Giridih, not willing to be named.
In-charge of mechanical department, B.B. Beck confirmed that practical classes had not been conducted for months. "There have been instances of students sustaining injuries due to crumbling ceiling plaster. We did not want to risk lives," he said.
It is not just infrastructure that is an eyesore, mentor crunch is compounding miseries for students. Out of the 34 sanctioned posts, there are only nine full-time teachers.
College principal Vinod Prasad Sinha admitted the lapses. "We have been complaining to the department of science and technology," he said.
In 2010, the superintendent engineer of PWD had inspected the college building and reported to the chief engineer. The department of science and technology had constituted a three-member probe committee ' headed by NIT civil engineering department lecturer M.M. Prasad ' on October 9, 2010. It was supposed to conduct a load test on the building and advise the government if renovation was required or a new building needed to be constructed. "The committee is yet to submit its report," Sinha said.
On dearth of faculty members, he admitted that they were completing syllabi with help from part-time lecturers from other cradles since the government cared little to fill up vacant posts.
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