It’s testing times for Agrasen College and early X-mas for science students

“All I see are some wires hanging from the roof. They need to start laying the gas pipeline on Tuesday. That will take at least four days. I need another four days to set up the lab for the exam and conduct a trial run with students after that,” said Vandana Soni,a lecturer in chemistry. Though Soni has finished the syllabus,she has refrained from fixing a date for the practicals since the lab is nowhere close to being ready.

Since the chemistry lab in the new building was not ready,Soni used to hold her practical classes once every week in the old building in Mayur Vihar Phase I where the college began in 1994 and had been functioning till early this year when it shifted to an under-construction building at Vasundhara Enclave.

While the Delhi University began its classes on July 21 this year — it was running five days late — classes in the new building of Agrasen College started only on July 26,to facilitate shifting.

There were no labs till the last week of September,when the electronics lab was set up. The physics lab came up only in November.

Praveen K Pandey,the teacher-in charge of the Electronics course,admits “some physics experiments will not take place at all” due to the delay. After a meeting with Department of Electronics at the South Campus,the college’s electronics teachers have decided not to conduct three of the eleven hardware experiments.

The delay in setting up the physics lab has also affected the students of BSc (physical sciences) who were supposed to share the facility. “We used to share the physics lab in the old building too,but the physics department was supposed to get independent labs here. Nothing happened till November 23 and the governing body had to interfere to speed up civil work and clear the procurement of new equipment,” said Parthsarathi,who teaches the students of BSc (physical sciences).

Most equipment for the physics department have now arrived and teachers say the lab should be ready in time for the semester exams though one or two practicals may have to be dropped.

The website of the Delhi Public Works Department lists April 3,2011 as the completion date of the building.

“Civil work is still being completed. The constant noise by machines means we have to shout to be heard,” history teacher Niraj Kumar Singh said.

When contacted,principal Sunil Sondhi called the allegations “absolutely false”. “We had to move because we were admitting 1,500 students this year while the old building could accommodate only 1,000,” he said,adding the labs in the new building are much better than those in the old one. “Biology and chemistry students used to share a lab in the old building. We now have two more rooms for computer labs and a separate lab for the physics department,” he said. Sondhi claimed most labs were up and running and that the chemistry lab would also be ready in a few days.