The Veterinary Council of India (VCI) has directed the Government Veterinary College in Hassan not to admit students for the academic year 2013-14, citing lack of infrastructure and adequate staff members.
The VCI, which awards recognition to veterinary colleges in the country, has said the college cannot admit students until it fulfils all mandatory requirements. A team of experts from the VCI had visited the college for three days from February 18. Based on the reports of experts in the team, the VCI asked the college, affiliated to the Karnataka Veterinary Animal and Fisheries Sciences University, Bidar, not to admit students for 2013-14.
Vasanth M. Shetty, dean of the college, told The Hindu that as per the VCI’s guidelines, a veterinary college should have teaching staff of at least 86 members and non-teaching staff of at least 106 members apart from a building with an area of 1 lakh sq. ft.
The college has 49 teaching staff and 21 non-teaching staff.
“We have taken the services of 35 non-teaching staff on contract. But the VCI does not take this into consideration. Moreover, we are functioning from a rented premises,” he said.
Rented premises
The college, set up in 2007, is functioning from the buildings of the Sericulture Department at Koravangala Gate, near Hassan.
The new campus is coming up on the outskirts of Hassan city. The State government has spent over Rs. 84 crore, including Rs. 17 crore on the land acquired for the campus. “We will shift to the new campus by May-end. The main hospital block is ready. After shifting to the new building, we will be in a better position to get VCI’s recognition,” Dr. Shetty said.
Similar is the situation in the Veterinary College in Shimoga. The recruitment of staff, being done by the university, has been delayed in view of objections filed in courts.
The first batch of students passed out in 2012. However, they are yet to get their registration number from the Karnataka Veterinary Council (KVC) as the college they studied in is not recognised by the VCI. As their degrees are not recognised by the KVC, they fear not getting through the on-going recruitment to the posts of veterinary officer.
“We don’t have any batch coming out in 2013 as the college did not admit students in 2008, following an instruction from the VCI. However, we are hopeful of getting the VCI recognition once we shift to the new campus and those studying in the college will not face any difficulty,” the dean said.
Karnataka has only four veterinary colleges. As the Hassan and Shimoga colleges have not got VCI recognition, the total number of seats available for those aspiring to study veterinary science will come down from 240 to 120. Of the 120 seats, 15 per cent has to be reserved for those selected through national-level entrance tests.
