TIRUPPUR: Students of the costume and fashion designing department in the Chikkanna government arts college alleged that only 10 sewing machines out of the 50 machines in the college are in working condition.
Speaking to TNIE, Shankar Vaithiyanathan, an alumnus of the college, said, “Over 150 students study in the department, but there are only 50 sewing machines. Out of the 50, only 10 sewing machines are working, while the others are worn out. Due to this, students are unable to practice their lessons. Although the students and the alumni have raised this issue several times, the college is unresponsive.”
Chitra (name changed), a student, said,” There are 50 students in three classes in the first year and 10 machines are not enough for practising and submitting the records. Every student has to wait for three hours to get a single machine. Some students from the first year are already tensed as the internal exams are scheduled from September 19 and we are unable to practice our lessons.”
However, officials from the college refuted the allegations and said that there are only 45 sewing machines, 10 out of which are obsolete. Besides, they claimed that the 35 machines are in working condition and have some minor issues.
The college principal Dr V Krishnan told TNIE, “We don’t wish to hide anything. Students are facing such issues due to fund allocations. The costume and fashion designing department has been functioning in this college since 2006. But still, there wasn’t any printer in the department, following which, four teachers spent around Rs 20,000 and purchased a printer for the department. The sewing machines are over 10 years old. We have sent a proposal to the state government seeking allocation of funds for maintenance and for buying new machines.”