Barely two days after Bangalore University (BU) Vice-Chancellor (VC) N. Prabhu Dev completed three years in office, Registrar (Administration) B.C. Mylarappa set out on an inspection of projects that have gone into the cold storage during his tenure.
On Wednesday, the Registrar, along with a few members of BU's Works Committee and Syndicate, took a tour of eight projects/buildings on the varsity's Jnana Bharathi (JB) campus which are in various stages of construction. The total worth of all these projects is estimated to be around Rs. 80 crore.
“All these buildings are 99 per cent complete, but construction has been stalled for various reasons. It is such a waste of public money. I will place the matter before the Syndicate, Higher Education Minister and the VC to get the projects completed,” said Prof. Mylarappa. He will also inspect the Central College campus soon.
Here are the some of the projects that are yet to see the light of the day, or are in dire need of improvement:
Students angry
In the SC/ST PG Boys' Hostel, the students complained that four to five people are crammed into a room meant for two.
“Restrooms are in a pathetic condition, the rooms are infested with bedbugs, the food provided here is hard to digest,” complained R. Manjunath.
Nagabhushan, a native of Tumkur, said they have gone without electricity for four days.
Hostel warden C.T. Venkatesh, along with angry students, blocked Prof. Mylarappa's entry saying that these were “mere visits that yielded no results”.
Visual Arts Centre
Costing around Rs. 4 crore, the Centre for Visual Arts was an ambitious project that was started about four years ago. The architecturally sophisticated building was meant to be the ideal launch pad for artists.
Though nearly Rs. 2.5 crore spent already, it remains unoccupied.
The extension of the Centre for Applied Genetics was being built at a cost of Rs. 40 lakh. Mahesh, the engineer from the company that is constructing the eight-room building, said only the finishing remained.
But due to non-payment of the contractor's dues, classes are being conducted in furniture-less classrooms.
Pool, health centre
There have been no swimming classes for physical education students for the last four years, and its disuse has affected the tiles of the pool.
The health centre can accommodate just two in-patients, and has only two doctors and a nurse for staff.
The toilets at athe centre are unusable as the doors are broken, and the building itself is in need of urgent repair.
