Art, culture and youth affairs minister Sukhda Pandey views a painting at College of Arts and Crafts, Patna, on Wednesday. Picture by Deepak Kumar

Patna, Jan. 25: Patna University (PU) today fulfiled its promise of gifting College of Arts and Crafts, Patna, permanent faculty members on its 73rd foundation day.

Nine teachers have been appointed. PU vice-chancellor Shambhu Nath Singh today announced their names during the institute’s 73rd foundation day celebrations.

The permanent faculty members are Sujay Mukherjee and Rakhi Kumari (graphics), Chandrabhusan Srivastava and Reeta Sharma (painting), Ajay Kumar Pandey (sculpture), Avinash Das and Shashi Ranjan Prakash (vocational art), Mazar Ellahi (photography) and Umesh Kumar Singh (art history).

The principal’s post and that of two faculty members are still vacant.

“Our first priority was to appoint good and qualified teachers. The remaining two faculty members and a principal would also be appointed soon,” the VC said.

Of the nine faculty members, Reeta Sharma and Rakhi Kumari have been retained as they had been working at the college for over a decade.

On January 19, the university had said it would appoint permanent teachers at the art college. The college had been functioning without a permanent faculty for the past two decades.

The final hurdle before the appointment was cleared at a varsity syndicate meeting last evening.

Total 219 candidates applied for the posts of the 11 faculty members at the art college. A written test was conducted and the aspirants were taken through an interview.

The vice-chancellor announced that the college syllabus, which has not been revised for over three decades, would be revised soon. It would be updated according to the guidelines of the University Grants Commission, he added. It was also decided that only Class XII passouts would be eligible to apply for admission to the college. So far, students clearing the Class X examination were eligible to apply for admission to the art college.

Chief guest on the occasion, art, culture and youth affairs minister Sukhda Pandey said: “The Nitish Kumar-led NDA government is working sincerely for the promotion of art and culture in the state.”

Pandey added that the ministry was willing to provide funds for the establishment of a studio in the college. Pandey asked the college principal in-charge, Atul Aditya Pandey, to prepare a proposal and fund estimation for setting up the studio on the college premises “as soon as possible”.

College of Arts and Crafts, Patna was established in 1939 as Government Art School.

After the VC and the minister left, ad hoc teacher Dinesh Diwakar vent his ire for not getting selected as a permanent teacher.

“I have been serving the institute for more than 10 years. But my dedicated work has not been recognised,” Diwakar said.