ROURKELA: One of the oldest educational institutes in the city, Rourkela College is struggling with myriad problems including acute staff shortage and lack of infrastructure for the last four years.
The college was set up in 1967 at Sector-4 over seven acre of land of Rourkela Steel Plant (RSP). In 1989, it was converted into Government Evening College and subsequently renamed as Rourkela College in 2001.
It initially offered Plus Two and Plus Three courses in arts and commerce streams but in in 2015, a junior science college under the control of the erstwhile notified area council at Sector-7 with 256 seats was merged with the institute. The science college was spread over 3.7 acre of RSP land. Now, the two campuses have around 3,000 students of which 70 per cent hail from poor economic background and SC/ST communities.
Sources said the science college was merged without the regular faculty and non-teaching staff. It was run by guest faculties. However, due to Covid-19 pandemic, the government from April restricted the guest teachers from taking classes without any alternate arrangement. For eight months, Plus Two science classes have been stalled due to absence of teachers.
College insiders informed that against the sanctioned strength of 18 faculty members, there are only nine teachers including the in-charge principal. For smooth conduct of classes, as many as 30 faculty members are required. In Philosophy department, all three faculty posts are vacant. English and History departments are being run by one faculty member each while two posts in each subjects are vacant.
The college now runs with 30 per cent of non-teaching staff. Six of seven clerical posts are vacant while the head clerk has been transferred to Khallikote College on promotion, but is continuing till arrival of his replacement. Besides, land ownership transfer of both the campuses to the college and inadequate funding are other major concerns.
In 2017, the Public Works Department took up construction of two hostels having combined capacity of 600 seats on both the campuses with government funding of around `11 crore. However, the RSP stopped work in 2018 asking the authorities to take no objection certificate (NOC) first. With intervention of the office of Rourkela ADM, the hostels were completed and handed over to the college in April, 2020.
Though three different ADMs have frequently written to RSP asking to issue NOC since 2017, the latter has maintained silence till now. Without NOC, the hostel buildings are yet to be electrified and lying idle.
This apart, the college is seeking funds from the government and Sundargarh District Mineral Foundation for beds and furniture for the hostels, a new Commerce block and Boy’s Common Room. In-charge principal Sujata Pradhan said the government has been apprised of the problems faced by Rourkela College.