Kokrajhar Music and Fine Art College in dire straits

From our Correspondent

KOKRAJHAR, Feb 14: The Kokrajhar Music and Fine Art College (KM&FAC) is in the doldrums. Although it has completed 22 years, the teachers and other non-teaching staff of the college are facing a lot of problems due to the alleged lackadaisical attitude of the State Government to provincialize the college.

The Kokrajhar Music and Fine Art College was established in 1996 under the same rules and regulation of State College of Music, Panjabari and Government College of Art and Crafts, Basistha, Guwahati. The KM&FA College has been providing Bachelor Degree in Music and Fine Art as per the rules and regulation in the Faculty of Arts under Gauhati University and many students have passed out from this institution. The appointment of teaching and non-teaching staff is also done as per the rules and regulations of the university.

Talking to this reporter, a teacher of the institution on condition of anonymity said the Department of Education and Department of Cultural Affairs were pushing each other for provincialization of the college and despite approval of the Minister of Education, the matter was still pending with the Department of Cultural affairs. It is also alleged that the members of the governing body of the college and principals who took charge also failed to tackle the matter in an appropriate manner.

A proposal was submitted by the BTC through EC decision and accordingly, the file was moved through the Director of Cultural Affairs, Government of Assam, in 2008 and the Secretary and Commissioner convened a meeting involving the then WPT&BC Minister Pramila Rani Brahma, who is also the president of the governing body of KM&FA College. But the Secretary and Commissioner made the point that the Government of Assam had no policy for provincialization of college at the moment. He, however, made a point that if policy came from the Department of Education, the Cultural Affairs department was ready to provincialize the college.

Later, the chief of BTC, Hagrama Mohilary, accompanied by his colleagues, approached the then Chief Minister of Assam and discussed the matter thrice in 2008 and 2009. Again, the then Transport Minister Chandan Brahma led a team comprising the members of the governing body and called on the Chief Minister at the Circuit House in Guwahati where the Chief Minister informed that the government was not in a position to provincialize KM&FA College until the MoU between the Centre and State expired in 2011. But he assured that the college would be provincialized along with other colleges when the government adopts the policy for provincialization in the State.

The Government of Assam adopted a policy to provincialize schools and colleges in the State by the Assam Venture Educatiol Institutions (Provincialization of Services) Act, 2011 and many colleges were provincialized but KM&FA College was again left aside. After that, the then State Education Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, in a meeting organized by the BTC at the Assembly auditorium hall, suggested the council to send proposal through a report of the District Scrutiny Committee for Higher Education and accordingly, the college submitted the proposal along with relevant documents to the education department. The Secretary, Department of Education, BTC, forwarded the proposal to the Commissioner and Secretary, Cultural Affairs, Government of Assam, and again the Cultural department informed the Education department that there was no budget allocation and policy for provincialization in the department. In the long run, Education Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma approved the proposal and head of account for Kokrajhar M&FA College was also made for salary to staff after clearing fincial recommendations. In the meantime, the Department of Culture made verbal assurance that the department concerned would provincialize the college.

Interestingly, the Kokrajhar M&FA College is still in dilemma due to lack of clear-cut policy of the Cultural department and lack of communication with the Education department while the Bodo MLAs are also not taking up the matter on the floor of the assembly. Till today, the college is hanging in balance and the teaching and non-teaching staffs of the college continue to suffer. It now remains to be seen what the Sarbanda Sonowal government does to provincialize the college as fresh proposals have been submitted again to the Chief Minister.