Ekamra College, one of the oldest in Khurda district, is battling infrastructure issues. For, one of the four blocks of the college building has been declared unsafe by the Road & Building division of the Works department, and the college authorities barred from using the block to hold classes or any other activity.
As the 2013-14 academic session is scheduled to begin in two months, the college has now appealed for help from the State Government to set up new infrastructure on its premises.
The college, founded in 1978, had more than 2,000 students in its rolls in the last academic year and this year too, it expects similar number of students.
Regional Director of Education, Bhubaneswar, in a recent notice, stated that block-A of the 35-year-old Ekamra College has been declared unsafe by the executive engineer of Road & Building division. The block houses six classrooms and was renovated to a certain extent in 2008. Including block-A, the college has a total of 10 classrooms besides small laboratories and tutorial rooms.
“Governing body of the college had approached IDCO to take up renovation works in the block-A at `15 lakh, but we were told that the extent of damage is such that the structure needs to be demolished and re-constructed. IDCO estimated the entire exercise at over Rs 1 crore,” said Principal of the College Chittaranjan Panda. He added that with the college management lacking funds to the tune of crores, it has been decided that some additional classrooms will be constructed on the 10-acre college campus.
This will, however, reflect upon education in the college as classes cannot be held regularly in the absence of required number of classrooms after the block-A is closed.
“Construction of new classrooms will take at least six to seven months. Till then, we are thinking of reducing the number of classes per day,” said the Principal, adding that the college has sought help from the Government for financial aid in setting up additional infrastructure and improving the quality of education. Panda said although the college management had urged upon the Department of Higher Education for sanctioning funds for infrastructure development a few months back, that did not come forth.