Kalimpong, May 15: The directorate of technical education in Bengal has taken necessary steps to ensure the sustainability of Chitrabhanu, the art and craft centre, where no student has enrolled for quite some time now.

Housed in a cottage, once a summer home of Rabindranath Tagore, at Atisha Road here, the centre currently has no trainees. It does not have adequate teaching staff either. As The Telegraph had reported last December, the total staff strength of the centre consists of one instructor, two office clerks, a peon and a night guard.

In an effort to reverse its decline, the directorate now plans to fill up all vacancies and introduce a two-year post-graduate diploma in computer application at the centre.

“The cabinet and finance department have already given nod to the filling up of five posts and we will soon set the recruitment process in motion,” said Parijat Dey, the director of technical education, over the phone from Calcutta.

The posts include that of superintendent, an instructor each for art and craft, music and computer, and a matron for the girls’ hostel. Dey said they would be appointed in two-three months.

The director said the PG diploma course would be open to both boys and girls. He added that the idea of starting the course is to train young people in the hills in computer application and enable them to find employment. The centre has run programmes only for women so far.

Dey said plans are also afoot to revamp the one-year diploma training for ensuring that students become employed or self-employed.

Chitrabhanu was set up 44 years ago to train women between the age of 18 and 30 in disciplines like painting, music and craft. However, there have been no takers for the centre from the side of either trainees or teachers recently.