The new academic block of Govt Arts College, Tripunithura
Kochi: Govt Arts College, Tripunithura, constructed a Rs 14-crore academic block three years ago, but the college lacks enough classrooms to accommodate students joining two newly sanctioned undergraduate courses. The college authorities did try to ensure road access to the college, but the problem is that the land identified for the access road is classified as wetland and owned by a society representing around 70 families. The new block, built with KIIFB funding on the college’s 7.5-acre campus near Mekkara, remains unused due to the lack of an access road. “Even last year we were struggling due to classroom shortage. But now due to the introduction of the new courses and four-year courses, the problem has worsened,” said Arjun Anilkumar, former chairperson of the college.
Anilkumar said that they had to surrender the student’s union office room to the college authorities to set up a classroom. College principal (in- charge) Anne Placid said, “Discussions are going on with the district collector and we expect a decision within a month. Consequently, the fire and rescue services has not issued a building NOC. The landowners say that they can only give up a portion of the land for college road, if they are permitted construction-related activities in rest of the property too. However, the issue remains unresolved. The students have raised the issue before State Human Rights Commission. Even the existing facilities on the old campus are ill maintained, with some of the classroom roofs leaking during heavy rain, making it unusable. However, before we start classes on the new campus, we would need to assess the condition of the building to ensure students safety”.
The institution currently has around 450 students across four departments — history, English, economics and commerce. The college, established in 1982, initially functioned from an LP school building where pre-degree courses were offered before it was shifted to Govt Boys’ High School. It moved to its present campus near Mekkara in 2005. An academic block was added in 2011, while postgraduate courses were introduced in 2016.
The state govt sanctioned BSc statistics and BSc psychology courses at the college from this academic year. Some classrooms are also being used as an off-campus centre of Sree Narayana Guru Open University, further reducing the space available for regular classes.