<p>The centre situated at Lady Hill functions in a congested old rented building, which does not have even basic facilities.<br /><br />The major problem faced by the centre is the man power crunch. The centre deals with hundreds of students on daily basis. Since the number of staff working in the centre is insufficient, both existing staff and students coming to the centre are put to inconvenience.<br /><br />There are only five staff (three permanent, two on contract) in the centre at present though it requires a minimum of eight staff. The centre has been managing the show with the same number of staff since two years. The shortage of staff has forced the data entry operator to double as a clerk as well!<br /><br />October to December is considered as the peak time in the Open University offices, since the last dates for applying to many courses fall on these months. “Many a days, we don’t even have our lunch. Since the last dates for applying many courses without fine falls on this month, we don’t want the students to pay the huge fine, just because the office lacks sufficient staff,” said one of the staff. <br /><br />Needless to say, the students come to the centre from distant places of Dakshina Kannada and Udupi district. The strength of staff is bare minimum considering the fact that the centre stands in second place in terms of number of students, out of the 10 KSOU regional centres.<br /><br />The sorry state of affairs is obvious with the fact that the building does not have even toilets and potable water facility, despite the fact that 80 per cent of the people accommodated in the building (students and staff) are women. <br /><br />“We are made to wait in the queue for hours together just to submit an application. There is no toilet and not even a bottle of water here,” said Preethi from Sullia, who was waiting in a queue.<br /><br />Apart from this, since there is not even a hotel or a juice centre near the building, the applicants have to invariable board a bus or travel some distance to munch on snacks. The employees however get tiffins.<br /><br />The worst victims of the entire episode are the handicapped students. “Handicapped students find it difficult to climb the stairs and submit applications at the centre,” said one of the staff.<br /><br />There is no proper arrangement in the office to keep the study materials for the students. There is no back up power supply in the office, which deals with hundreds of students throughout the day. Situation in office, which first of all lacks proper lighting, is getting worse when the power supply goes off. <br /><br />Though the KSOU is paying more than Rs 20,000 as rent for the building, it doesn’t have any facility. The office which was functioning at Jyothi circle was shifted to Lady Hill last January and continues to wait for the attention of the department concerned so that things would fall in place.<br /></p>
<p>The centre situated at Lady Hill functions in a congested old rented building, which does not have even basic facilities.<br /><br />The major problem faced by the centre is the man power crunch. The centre deals with hundreds of students on daily basis. Since the number of staff working in the centre is insufficient, both existing staff and students coming to the centre are put to inconvenience.<br /><br />There are only five staff (three permanent, two on contract) in the centre at present though it requires a minimum of eight staff. The centre has been managing the show with the same number of staff since two years. The shortage of staff has forced the data entry operator to double as a clerk as well!<br /><br />October to December is considered as the peak time in the Open University offices, since the last dates for applying to many courses fall on these months. “Many a days, we don’t even have our lunch. Since the last dates for applying many courses without fine falls on this month, we don’t want the students to pay the huge fine, just because the office lacks sufficient staff,” said one of the staff. <br /><br />Needless to say, the students come to the centre from distant places of Dakshina Kannada and Udupi district. The strength of staff is bare minimum considering the fact that the centre stands in second place in terms of number of students, out of the 10 KSOU regional centres.<br /><br />The sorry state of affairs is obvious with the fact that the building does not have even toilets and potable water facility, despite the fact that 80 per cent of the people accommodated in the building (students and staff) are women. <br /><br />“We are made to wait in the queue for hours together just to submit an application. There is no toilet and not even a bottle of water here,” said Preethi from Sullia, who was waiting in a queue.<br /><br />Apart from this, since there is not even a hotel or a juice centre near the building, the applicants have to invariable board a bus or travel some distance to munch on snacks. The employees however get tiffins.<br /><br />The worst victims of the entire episode are the handicapped students. “Handicapped students find it difficult to climb the stairs and submit applications at the centre,” said one of the staff.<br /><br />There is no proper arrangement in the office to keep the study materials for the students. There is no back up power supply in the office, which deals with hundreds of students throughout the day. Situation in office, which first of all lacks proper lighting, is getting worse when the power supply goes off. <br /><br />Though the KSOU is paying more than Rs 20,000 as rent for the building, it doesn’t have any facility. The office which was functioning at Jyothi circle was shifted to Lady Hill last January and continues to wait for the attention of the department concerned so that things would fall in place.<br /></p>
