Thursday, Sep 18, 2008
Karur: The fledgling Dr. Kalaignar Government Arts College, Kulithalai, is in urgent need of moving into its own buildings to house the classes.

The Kulithalai Government Arts College came into being following persistent demand for one such college on the south of River Cauvery between Karur and Tiruchi. The presence of a Government Arts College at Musiri across the river in Tiruchi district had thwarted all previous attempts to have a college in Kulithalai.


But the unusual and memorable occasion of the golden jubilee of Assembly membership of Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi presented the townsmen, who had first sent him to the Legislative Assembly, with the opportunity to enjoy some benefits, one of which was grant of a new Arts college. There the people’s long time demand and the State Government’s wishes congregated to cause the rise in 2007 of the new Dr. Kalaignar Government Arts College, which is certainly a boon to the poor and downtrodden students from the Kulithalai’s rural hinterland.

At present the college is housed at the Anna Samudaya Koodam, a cramped space that could in no way be a cause of comfort to the teacher and the taught. In fact, the atmosphere is far from being conducive to learning. Now over 440 students have been accommodated in the congested Samudaya Koodam.

Meagre amenities and infrastructure is what one could expect at a temporary shelter, that is the Koodam. It is to the credit of the authorities that they have not allowed the situation to slip into some sort of a government primary school of yonder that one could have come across in rural areas - replete with crowded classrooms full of crying and screaming children, with the lessons getting drowned in the torrent of barely audible voices.

Thankfully, the authorities here at the Arts College are straining to keep order in the building that passes off for a college. One positive development is that the State Government has allotted a site for locating the college near Ayyarmalai on the Kulithalai-Manapparai highway. The site could be developed as a centre of learning if the authorities show some urgency in raising buildings to house the college at Ayyarmalai.

It is gathered that draft proposals have been prepared for constructing buildings to house the classrooms at an estimated cost of Rs. 10.50 crore in the initial phase. Kulithalai and even Manapparai public would be thankful to the State Government if it could take a lenient look at the plight of the students currently admitted into the first two years of the graduate programmes. Students say that the situation would take a turn for the worse if the college moves into the third and freshers were to be admitted to the courses in the next academic year. The present Anna Samudaya Koodam would never be able to accommodate the entire bunch of students.