Patna University lacks even minimum basic amenities

Updated on: Monday, November 07, 2011

Patna University's wish for a Central university status sounds somewhat like a popular adage widely quoted in north Bihar "man karaiye puwa pakaiton; tel rahait ta gur paincha lainto; ata nadarad" (wishing for baking a sweet dish a person aspires to borrow sugar from someone else, he may have oil, but he does not have flour even)." The 94-year-old university, seventh oldest in the country, lacks even the minimum basic amenities conducive to its academic growth.

As the things stand today, the libraries of most colleges and university departments do not subscribe any standard journal and the scholars fail to get the latest books in subjects concerned. The laboratories of science departments are running without the essential equipment and chemicals. Many postgraduate departments face immense hardship in meeting their day-to-day expenses due to non-availability of contingency grants. The university has not sanctioned even a single penny to any department during the current financial year.

But what affects the academic credibility of PU most is the acute dearth of teachers. The university has got less than 400 teachers to teach nearly 20,000 students, even though it has got as many as 900 sanctioned posts of teachers. All the superior posts of teachers, including professors and readers, sanctioned by the UGC during different Plan periods are lying vacant for the last several decades. Neither a single post has been created by the government since 1975 nor has any appointment been made against any vacant superior post since 1985 by any university in the state.

While more than 200 superior posts of teachers are still lying vacant, hundreds of posts have fallen vacant following superannuation of several working hands in the last 10 to 15 years. Almost all the postgraduate departments of PU have been facing the problem, with many of them being managed by just one or two teachers.

Senior teachers of PU wonder whether chief minister Nitish Kumar, who is an alumnus of PU, would be able to bring this university at par with Central universities under the prevailing conditions. Surprisingly enough, even deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi, health minister Ashwini Kumar Choubey and present chief secretary Navin Kumar are all alumni of this university. If immediate steps are not initiated to improve the things, the university would soon pass into oblivion, they feel.

Times of India

Patna University lacks even minimum basic amenities

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