TUMAKURU: For the first time in its history, the Siddaganga Mutt is forced to deny admission to children as the present infrastructure cannot match the overflow of applications.
After the death of Sri Shivakumara Swamiji, the popularity of the Mutt has grown manifolds. At least 18 lakh people had attended his funeral. This was followed by many parents seeking admissions for their children in the mutt, the mutt authorities said.
Though the Mutt authorities want to give admissions to all, the shortage of accommodation, lack of classrooms, the dearth of teachers and scarcity of water, are stopping them. Every year, there used to be about 5,000 students from Class I to Class X seeking admission into the mutt, which offers free food, shelter and education.
In his over eight decades of administration, 111-year-old Sri Shivakumara Swamiji had not turned down any student or parent and admissions were guaranteed. However, for the 2019-20 academic year, the Mutt had issued 10,000 applications, which got filled within 15 days. Despite this, students and their parents from across the state continue to throng the mutt, only to be turned down by the authorities.
Gowramma, a parent said, “We came from Vijayapura to enrol three of our children. However, mutt authorities informed us that the applications got exhausted.”
Her relative Gopal, a police constable with the Bengaluru International Airport police station, was still hopeful of getting seats as the junior pontiff Sri Siddalinga Swamiji, now the head of the Mutt, was expected to return from a function held at Kollegala.
Shivakumar, a daily wage worker at Hiriyuru market, along with his brother-in-law Dadapeer, had arrived for his son Imran’s admission to the Class II. “Mine was an inter-religion marriage and I want my children to grow in the mutt’s secular environment,” he said.
The mutt’s administrative officer Vishwanathaiah clarified that out of 10,000 applications, the Mutt issued that it cannot admit about 5,000 of them.
“We have only three high schools with 25 sections and each consists of at least 80 students. We can’t accommodate so many students,” he clarified.
He also pointed out that since the mutt is located on the outskirts, the Hemavathy water supply was not regular. “We need to depend on the 30 borewells, of which 15 have gone dry. Very soon, we will have to avail water through tankers,” he added.