JOIN USFor the first time in its history, the Siddaganga Mutt in Tumakuru has halted admission to its residential school fearing water scarcity.
“We have received more than 8,000 applications seeking admission. The issue of admission applications has been stopped 15 days earlier compared to last year. This is the first time in the history of the mutt that we have stopped admission, purely because of water problem,” said S Vishwanathaiah, the administrator of the Mutt. Notices intimating that the admissions for Class 1 to Class 7 and for Classes 9 and 10 for the year 2019-20 have been closed, are pasted on the Mutt premises.
Around 9,000 students study in the residential school run by the Mutt. All these children are provided free food, in addition to the large number of devotees who visit the Mutt every day. One of the prestigious religious institutions in the state, Siddaganga Mutt, is mostly dependent on borewells to meet its water needs. More than 20 borewells have been sunk on the Mutt premises and according to sources around six have already dried up and the yield has come down in the remaining borewells.
Vishwanathaiah told DH that the situation had been manageable till now as there were no students in the hostels. “Students will come to hostels in the first week of June and tackling water crisis at that time has become a huge challenge. We may have to purchase water from tankers,” he added.