Andhra Pradesh - Karimnagar   

Campus of prestigious institute shrinking

Staff Reporter

Over the years, this college has been shrinking with several other institutions coming up on the sprawling campus

KARIMNAGAR: The prestigious Sri Raja Rajeshwara (SRR) Government Degree and PG College in Karimnagar town, which celebrated its golden jubilee (1956-2006) with much pomp recently, is on the verge on shrinking with several new structures other than educational institutions coming up on its sprawling campus.

Spread in 26 acres in the heart of Karimnagar town, this prestigious educational institution in north Telangana offers 24 undergraduate and five post-graduate courses with about 3,500 students pursuing their education. This college, which produced several luminaries, has also secured B++ accreditation from the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC).

But over the years, this college is shrinking in size with several other institutions coming up on the sprawling campus. It all started with the Karimnagar Municipal Corporation authorities constructing an overhead tank in an acre of land to supply drinking water to the nearby residential areas.

Later, the same corporation occupied another acre of land for the construction of the residential bungalow of the Karimnagar Municipal Commissioner.

Currently, the district administration has proposed construction of `mini Ravindra Bharathi', a multipurpose cultural centre, in about two acres of land at a cost of Rs. 2 crores in the SRR College. Accordingly, ZP Chairman Arepalli Mohan, who is also an alumnus of the college, laid the foundation for the project on Sunday. The revenue authorities have decided to demolish the existing basketball, handball and football courts for the construction of `mini Ravindra Bharathi' on the college premises.

Already about 1 acre of land belonging to the college in the rear side was encroached upon and converted into a public road by the residents of Vidyanagar locality. Currently, the college campus has been restricted to just 21 acres from 26 acres. The college authorities and students fear further encroachment of the college land because of its prime location.

The faculty of the college, which is up in arms against the illegal encroachments of their prime lands, has said that the district administration had snatched away their land without their consent. The encroachments of college lands for other than educational purposes will shatter the dreams of the founders of the college and the philanthropist who had donated the huge land to the college, they said.

The college teachers said that they would launch an agitation along with the students and stop the construction of the `mini Ravindra Bharathi' and residential bungalow of the Municipal Commissioner with the slogan `Save SRR College.' They also said that they had stopped the construction of an electricity sub-station osn the college premises following their agitational programmes.

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