Sambalpur, March 5: Students of Government Homeopathy College have expressed apprehension over the imminent discontinuation of the bachelor of homeopathic medicine and surgery (BHMS) course because of acute teacher shortage and poor infrastructure.

“The Central Council of Homeopathy (CCH) has recommended to the state government to stop admissions to the BHMS course from next academic session. A delegation of the council, which visited our college last year, has pointed out several shortcomings, including the dearth of teachers and inadequate infrastructure,” said Tushar Ranjan Sethy, vice-president of the students’ union.

Only six lecturers are managing the college, which should ideally have 13 professors, 13 readers and 15 lecturers. The students said the institution was located nearly 8km away from the hospital in violation of the council's guidelines.

“The hospital and the college should be on the same campus. Though the hospital building has already been constructed near our college, it is yet to be shifted,” said Sethy. Medical equipment such as treadmill, ECG, cardiac monitor, auto analyser, physiotherapy instruments and others are available at the hospital but gathering dust because of lack of technical persons to operate it. “Students are also being deprived of exposure to the equipment which are considered life saving, because of the absence of technicians,” said Sarita Das, a student.

They also said they had apprised the government of the situation of the institution on several occasions, but their pleas had fallen on deaf ears.

“The government has not shown any interest to improve things. Now that our college runs the risk of being derecognised, we are planning to approach local legislators to save the institution,” said Bidya Barik, president of students’ union. Principal of the college Radharani Mishra also admitted that the college was struggling with a teacher shortage.

“We have written to the government authorities about the existing problems but are yet to get a response from them,” she said. Asked about the council's recommendation to stop admission to the BHMS course, Mishra said: “The CCH team had expressed dissatisfaction over the staff status of the college. However, I am yet to receive any written communication from the government.”