KPT facing acute staff shortage

More than half the posts at Karnataka Government Polytechnic (KPT) here are vacant, KPT principal Vijaya Kumar told The Hindu on Thursday.

He said as against the required 174 staff members, there were only 78. The vacant posts included that of 40 lecturers.

The rest comprised foremen, instructors, mechanics, and helpers.

The exact number of posts other than lecturer was difficult to get as helpers would get promoted to mechanics, who would become instructors, who would become foremen, he said.

Mr. Kumar said that in the Computer Science Department, one post was occupied and seven were vacant. Shortage of staff was acute in the machine shop which was used to teach automobile and mechanical engineering. He said if the polytechnic's working was affected because of vacancies, the boys would be on the streets.

He said that to tide over the shortage, the polytechnic had hired retired persons. They were paid from the polytechnic's internal development fund.

The funds were generated from short-term courses that the polytechnic organises for students. Of the funds generated, 25 per cent went to the State Government, 10 per cent to reserved funds, and 65 per cent was utilised for the development of the college. (Last year, the college generated Rs. 1.25 crore for the fund), he said.

Mr. Kumar said that he had informed Ganesh Karnik, MLC, about the vacancies. Mr. Karnik told The Hindu that he had been trying to talk to the Government about the vacancies but it was difficult to recruit competent teachers and the process would take 8 to 12 months, he said.