Peeved over damage of properties at the Jamshedpur Cooperative College that served as strong room during Assembly polls, the college has decided to write to the East Singhbhum deputy commissioner Ravi Shankar Shukla complaining about property damage.
Though the college is closed for the winter vacation and will reopen on January 3, some faculty members have reported it to the principal V.K. Singh. For the second time this year the Jamshedpur Cooperative College (JCC) was turned into a strong room and now the damages have been done allegedly by the forces who stayed there.
Nearly 8000 students of Jamshedpur Co-operative College ( JCC), arguably one of the oldest colleges of the city, will face trouble with damaged properties.
The college, a constituent unit of Kolhan University, which was established in 1960 on a sprawling 35 acres of land given by Tata Steel has around 8000 students on roll for different streams and 77 faculties, is being used by the district administration since 1962 as strong rooms for general elections and assembly polls. The College is facing dilemma where to conduct the examinations and classes.
An official said that though they took up the matter with the district administration to come up with a solution soon but have received nothing so far. The main building which houses classrooms and offices was taken over by the district administration.
According to data collected from the archives of the district administration ever since combined Singhbhum (East Singhbhum was carved out of Singhbhum in 1990) Jamshedpur Cooperative College has served as strong room for general elections and assembly elections since 1962.
Be it the parliamentary elections in April 2009, the Assembly polls in November 2009 or the panchayat elections last November and December and the Jamshedpur by-poll in July 2011 the education cradle has had to bear the brunt of hosting polling officials and security personnel for nearly a month and also stocking EVMs for dispatch to different polling stations.
“We always find benches and desks broken. The plastered walls will be half-broken and everything around will be messy. Heavy vehicles used for polling parties is kept at the college ground and after election the ground is damaged and not fit for our use” said Pawan Kumar, a final-year law student.
Bent ceiling fans, broken water taps, unclean washrooms and water filled classrooms is what was seen when people visited the college
"We are shocked over the situation and will write a letter to the deputy commissioner apprising him of the damage that has been done. This is a regular story after the college is vacated by the deployed forces after the election counting," said college principal Singh.
