The 93-year old Ganpati Rajkiya Sanskrit College, perhaps the oldest such college in Jharkhand existing in a dilapidated condition in the State Capital, is all set to get a new building by March 2015.
Presently, the three undergraduate batches are accommodated in one classroom wherein teachers and students are devoid of water, electricity and toilets.The problem is ‘serious’ for the college fraternity as students rarely seek admission in this traditional subject known as ‘mother of all languages’.
“After a long struggle, the State HRD department granted us Rs1 crore 14 lakh for building construction in July last year. Tender for the building has been finalized and we will be shifting to the new building by the beginning of next academic session. But with teaching staff crunch and lack of basic facilities it is hard to manage the four groups of students in one batch,” College Principal Dr B Mishra told The Pioneer.
According to sources, the new building will have 20 to 22 classrooms with a hall and computer library.The college having student strength of 100 students needs around 12 teachers but is functioning with only four teachers, including the Principal since 2010.Sources said three Sanskrit constituent colleges, including Ganpati Rajkiya Sanskrit College and three affiliated colleges of the state which come under Vinoba Bhave University, Hazaribagh (VBU) the condition is almost similar.
“Candidates rarely qualify the recruitment test for Sanskrit teaching posts. last recruitment for these college teachers was conducted in 2008 which received a poor response,” an official of VBU said.Due to these reasons, the college administration is constantly failing in fulfilling the total number of seats for Bachelor of Arts (BA) Honours in Ved, Sahitya, Vyakaran and Jyotish.“We had to stop our Post Graduation course (Acharya) after the formation of the State due to shortage of teachers and infrastructural facilities,” pointed out Principal Mishra.
Also, the college is referred an inconvenient place for students especially girls. “We used to have a boys’ hostel which deteriorated due to lack of maintenance.As there are no proper boundary walls and toilets around the college, it has totally become unsafe for girls,” faculty of the college Dr Shailesh Mishra said with reference to the 80 percent population of male students out of the 100 students.
Interestingly, the library of this college is rich in books but the infrastructure problem is creating troubles for the administration for preserving the same. “Sometimes, we have to take classes in the Principal’s room and keep the library book cupboards in his office during rainy season since there is no other room to manage both the responsibilities,” maintained Shailesh Mishra.
