A symbol of selfless service left uncared for  

Jogipet (Sangareddy): A mighty monument of unparalleled services of great visionaries of yore stands tall, but neglected at Andole in Jogipet mandal of Sangareddy district. The structure - Nehru Memorial Arts and Science College – is the perfect example of how the noble efforts by freedom fighters, traders, businessmen, farmers and people from all walks of life can bring in change in society.

The college was started in Jogipet way back in 1968 by using crowd funding methods. By now, it has come a long way from being just a college to becoming a perfect venue for the implementation of the much-hyped KG-to-PG education scheme of the State government once it materialises.

The college was started by freedom fighters and influential individuals like Baswa Manaiah, Laxma Reddy, Suriganti Chandrappa, Narayan Reddy, Dakur Ram Reddy and others. At the time, it was started under a private management with funds gathered from people.

Farmers who went to sell their produce in the local market yard donated a portion of their earnings for establishment of the institution. Around 25 acres of government land was allotted in the name of the college. From becoming an aided college in 1975 and consequently being taken over and run by the government in 1982, the institution became a composite college offering intermediate and degree programmes.

As the institution got good results and people who graduated from there attaining good career positions, today the college has separate junior colleges for co-education and girls, several new buildings constructed and under construction (sanctioned when Damodara Rajanarasimha was the Deputy Chief Minister of United Andhra Pradesh).

Within the campus stands the centuries-old Joginath temple, the vicinity of which adds a little spiritual touch to the students’ lives. Students from not only the junior, degree and PG colleges hang out near the well-developed temple, but also those studying in other private institutions come there to have lunch, to watch videos on cell phones and of course, to study.

“This campus has the best infrastructure available and procurement of lab material is also done much in advance,” said Ramayyagari Ram Reddy, who is a guest lecturer teaching Economics to girls in the junior college located on the 25-acre campus, which has been reduced to 20 acres after college land was encroached and regularised long back.

However, despite all the money spent on infrastructure, good result is something which has been elusive to the students graduating from this college. Though there is a library, a reading room, a newspaper reading room and rooms for each and every activity, students complain about unavailability of good books in the library.

There is a massive indoor stadium constructed on the campus, but it is seldom open for students to practice. There are separate colleges for degree, PG and Intermediate education on the sprawling campus with a beautiful scenic view in its background. There are also students from polytechnic college who are attending classes in junior and degree college buildings in incomplete structures.

They have no access to library and no lab facility is available to them. “We don’t have a problem studying in under-construction classrooms, but lab equipment and subject books would be greatly useful to us next year, as we will be in the second year,” said Naveen Kumar, first year student of Polytechnic College (Mechanical Engineering).

Not many people know that this was the only degree college for students in Narayankhed, Zaheerabad, Sangareddy, Medak and other areas, to graduate when there was no other degree college in those areas. Even in the 1969 Telangana movement, students like Pulugu Kishtaiah, Azam and Narayan Goud, who led the movement in Jogipet, were from this college. They were arrested and sent to prison in Bidar at the time.

There are scientists, educationists, social workers, administrators and so on, who graduated from this institution. However, of late results have been a cause for concern. “The students of this institution are very attentive and even the lecturers have good subject knowledge. But unfortunately efforts are missing from both the sides.

This institution desperately needs a management that is committed to improving the quality of education by acting tough,” said lecturer Ram Reddy, who has spent the last 30 years of his professional life in education sector, and working as a contract lecturer in Nehru Memorial College.

By M Yadagiri