The Government College of Art and Craft building and (below) Hrishikesh Bora, a student of the college, addresses a news meet on Tuesday. Pictures by UB Photos

May 8: It is as old as the country’s Independence. In the last 65 years of its existence, the state’s first Government College of Art and Craft in Basistha has produced many artists but its problem of poor infrastructure remains, much to the inconvenience of its students.

Fed up with the “neglect and apathy” of state culture department, students of the college — set up in 1947 — today demanded that it be handed over to the education department and get UGC affiliation to improve its infrastructure and quality of education.

“We have moved the culture department several times to get safe drinking water, a good hostel, a library and a space where we can have our classes, but nothing has been done. So, we want that it should be handed over to the education department to ensure that we get basic facilities like other colleges,” the general secretary of the students’ union of the college, Chandan Gogoi, said.

Altogether 150 students are studying BA in fine arts and craft in the college which is under the state culture department.

The students are suffering because of shortage of clean drinking water and 25 students staying at the hostel are not getting good food.

“As we do not have proper drinking water supply, we have to collect water from the nearby crematorium and those staying in the hostel are eating at hotels as there is no cook in our hostel for long,” Hrishikesh Bora, a student studying graphic art, said.

“The situation is such that we are not provided with money to publish our college magazine. A few months back we brought out a hand-written magazine which is very unfortunate for students,” Bora said.

The college at present is affiliated to Gauhati University but Gogoi said the recent list of colleges affiliated to the university did not mention its name.

“If our college is granted UGC affiliation, we will get quality teachers and other facilities. We have already checked that many arts and craft colleges in other states have UGC affiliation. Since our culture department is not taking any step, we want the education department’s help,” Gogoi said.

The union complained that because of the government’s negligence, education is hampered.

“Students of engineering or a medical college study only books on their subjects, but being fine arts students we have to study subjects like history, education and geography. If we want to make an art work of a particular period, knowledge of history and geography of that period is a must but we do not have a proper library in our college,” Bora said.

“Art and culture keep a community alive but if we do not support those working for promotion of arts, who will keep the community alive?” a student asked at the news conference.