Buildings lie unused for want of furniture at govt college

Ravi Chandel

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, April 24

Even though a couple of buildings were constructed at Government Rajindra College four years ago, they have failed to serve the purpose in the absence of required infrastructure.

These buildings were constructed on the campus under Central government-sponsored schemes — Higher Education Institute Society (HEIS) and Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA).

The HEIS offers degrees and courses such as BCA, BBA, BSc-Biotech, MA-History and Philosophy, MSc-Physics and mathematics, besides the hotel management courses. The total strength of students studying under HEIS is 1,304.

In the absence of adequate classrooms, classes had to be arranged in the open till a couple of years ago. The HEIS building was constructed in 2015 and the society also managed to procure furniture for two of the classrooms.

However, HEIS did not get permission from the authorities to spend the remaining fund of Rs 5.5 lakh to purchase furniture for the remaining 4 classrooms.

Consequently, HEIS was left with no option but to conduct their classes in the old classrooms on a rotational basis.

Harjinder Singh, secretary, HEIS, said, “It is difficult to understand why the authorities concerned are not giving permission to spend the remaining amount to purchase the furniture so that these classrooms can be utilised for the purposes for which they were built.”

Meanwhile, another building, constructed under RUSA and having six classrooms, is also facing the same issue.

RUSA committee members said they had received Rs 50 lakh for the construction of the building. Subsequently, they got Rs 25 lakh for upgrade of the college. After these two instalments, they have not received even a single penny so they could not purchase furniture for the classrooms, they added.

When contacted, college principal Mukesh Aggarwal, who is also the chairperson of HEIS and a senior member of RUSA, denied not having furniture for remaining four classrooms constructed under HEIS. He claimed that only one classroom was without furniture.

He further stated that he would grant permission for the purchase of furniture so that the classes could be started there.

As for the building constructed under RUSA, Aggarwal said, “We have given an estimate of Rs 12 lakh for purchase of furniture to the Parent Teacher Association (PTA) to facilitate the same to us through Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal.”