HC poser to government on appointment of stapathis

Asks whether it can recruit graduates from govt. college

October 11, 2018 12:28 am | Updated 12:28 am IST - CHENNAI

The Madras High Court on Wednesday wanted to know whether the State government is receptive to the idea of appointing degree holders from the Government College of Architecture and Sculpture at Mamallapuram near here as stapathis of temples or as Assistant Engineers in the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Ddepartment.

Justice R. Mahadevan directed Special Government Pleader M. Maharajan to ascertain the government’s stand on the issue by October 25. He issued the direction on a writ petition filed by one of the graduates D.V. Murugan who had been doing work related to temple architecture and sculpture since 1994 by establishing a private studio.

During the course of hearing of the case, the judge said the government could always consider recruiting meritorious candidates who pass out of the college to the post of stapathis . In response, Mr. Maharajan said the HR&CE department was also of the same view and it had already sent a recommendation in this regard to the government.

In his affidavit, the petitioner said the government college at Mamallapuram was established in 1957 with the objective of preserving the ancient craft of making sculptures and other art works. Affiliated to the University of Madras, the institute teaches about 58 subjects including temple architecture, iconography and agama sastras .

The courses offered by the college include Bachelor of Technology (B. Tech) in traditional architecture and Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) in traditional drawing and painting. Around 40 students pass out of the college every year, and so far, approximately 1,800 students had graduated from it since its establishment, the petitioner claimed.

Such graduates would be most suitable to carry out maintenance and repair works in over 38,600 temples under the control of the HR&CE department, the petitioner said, and sought a direction to the government to appoint them either as stapathis or as Assistant Engineers in the department.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.