Bhubaneswar, Aug 1: The state government has served closure notices on seven Sanskrit colleges after an inspection team pointed out several shortcomings in these institutions.

During inspection, the team found out that six of the seven colleges do not exist at locations mentioned as their permanent addresses. One of the colleges saw zero enrolment last year owing to insufficient infrastructure.

The colleges that were found non-existent this year include Kusumarani Sanskrit Mahavidyalaya in Jajpur's Bari block, Purnananda Patnaik Evening Sanskrit College in Cuttack's Mahanga block and the institutions in Puri district includes Maa Mangala Sanskrit College at Nimapara block, Raghunath Sanskrit College at Kanas block, Sarat Chandra Sanskrit College at Kanas block and Shankar Baba Sanskrit College at Kakatpur block.

These colleges have been functioning for more than six years.

They also offered subjects such as sahitya, vyakarana, darshan, English, Odia, history, political science and education with an intake of 64 students each in Plus Two (Shastri) and Plus Three (Upashastri).

The school and mass education department, which has taken up the management of these colleges, said action had been taken to put a check on colleges running with temporary recognition.

According to a source, there are 217 Sanskrit colleges in the state. Of which, only 47 colleges have permanent affiliation and 95 have received government recognition. The remaining colleges run on temporary permission, which has to be renewed every year.

"A ground inspection by the team has found out that these colleges don't exist at the permanent address that they mentioned during availing temporary recognition from the state government. These colleges have already been delinked from the e-admission process," said a senior officer of the department.

"Most colleges continue to operate despite being denied permission for affiliation from the universities," the officer said.

Students studying these colleges are worried about their future. "If the college shuts down.We will have nowhere to go. I hope the government takes steps to get us admitted in other colleges," said Ankita Mohanty, a student.

The school and mass education department authorities have said that they would decide on next course of action soon after the admission session of Plus Two and Plus Three concludes.