Other States - Orissa   

Art colleges face fund crisis

BHUBANESWAR: The State Government can pump in nearly Rs.2.5-crore to facilitate the hosting of an international Odissi dance festival by an US-based cultural organisation in the capital in December 2006. But it failed to provide a grant of Rs.10 lakh to the five major art colleges of the State at that time to enable these institutions to avail UGC funding.

Sounds absurd but true. And it speaks volumes of the Government’s step-motherly attitude towards the deplorable state of art education in Orissa.

The State has just seven art colleges of which five have been established by non-government initiatives. These colleges located at the district headquarter towns of Baleswar, Sundargarh, Kendujhar and Bhadrak besides the Dhauli College of Art and Crafts in Bhubaneswar cater to the growing need of art education in an era of animation and multi-media while grooming hundreds of students for employment in the sector. These colleges were also affiliated to the Utkal University of Culture in 1999 as per a decision of the Government. Yet, it has been a long wait of 10 years for the colleges to receive any grant from the Government. Ironically enough, 449 other colleges of the State under the Department of Higher Education have availed the grant; thereby becoming eligible to avail aid from the University Grants Commission.

UGC guidelines state that unless a college gets any grant from the respective State Government, it can not be eligible to avail UGC’s financial assistance.

After years of appeal to the Government for grant-in-aid, the Department of Culture, on March 19 last year, finally wrote to the Finance Department to release an annual grant of Rs.2 lakh for each of the colleges in order to enable the institutions to avail UGC grants. Fourteen months later there is no progress in the matter despite repeated demands from various forums.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

Art colleges face fund crisis
KIIT ranked 18th among top 100
Petro price hike affects PDS
Women robbed of ornaments
People up in arms against various projects in State
Work on titanium oxide project to begin next month
Congress launches tirade against government
Relief operation stepped up in flood-hit districts
HC expresses concern over Cuttack woes
Tribals hold demonstration seeking protection

Copyright © 2008, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu