Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (SP)

Mangaluru, May 20: The Pre University Board has not taken any decision on the request from the PU colleges in the district to postpone reopening of the classes this year because of inadequate arrangements to meet water needs of students.

Many private PU colleges have postponed reopening of PU classes, which were to reopen on May 20. The managements of St Aloysius, Sharada Vidyalaya and some others have temporarily put off the classes. The district PU College Principals Association had earlier sent a petition to PU Board, seeking to postpone the reopening date by a few days because of acute water shortage.

St Aloysius PU College has student strength of 4,000

Sharada Vidyalaya has postponed the reopening date for PUC by a week. St Aloysius management has decided to reopen the classes after June 1. Principal of St Aloysius PU College said that the city is reeling under severe water shortage and extremely hot weather. He therefore reasoned that for the children, it would be difficult to sit inside the classrooms for several hours every day. "We have 4,000 students in the college. If all the colleges reopen on Monday, whatever water stock is available would be exhausted in a day. Therefore, we have requested PU Board to postpone the date of reopening," he stated.

Sharada Vidyalaya teachers said that the students have been informed that the date of reopening would be announced after the district starts getting rains.

However, principal of Canara PU College in the city, Dr Prabha Kamath Hundi, said that there is a need to postpone reopening of the college. She however added that Canara PU College would be functional from May 20 onward as the PU Board has not issued any instructions so far.

Dakshina Kannada district additional deputy commissioner, R Venkatachalapathy, said that the administration has not received any order either from the government or the PU board to put off the date of PU classes opening.