Out of 1,748 Sanskrit teachers' posts, 809 vacant in 120 universities: HRD

New Delhi: It seems the tall claims of the government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to promote the Sanskrit language in colleges have fallen flat as the universities are facing acute shortage of Sanskrit teachers.

According to Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal 'Nishank', there are about 120 universities in the country which offer Sanskrit as a subject or language and the universities are running short of 809 Sanskrit teachers.

In a written reply to a question asked by BJP MP Rahul Kaswan, the HRD Minister told Lok Sabha that there are 15 Sanskrit universities of which three are deemed universities and fully funded by the Central government, while 12 universities are funded by the state governments. "There are 1,000 traditional Sanskrit colleges affiliated to these universities with about 10 lakh students," Pokhriyal told the House.

As per the HRD Minister's reply, the vacancy of Sanskrit gurus (teachers) is about 46 per cent of the total number of teachers as the universities are having 949 Sanskrit teachers out of the total sanctioned post of 1,748.

With 490 sanctioned posts, Delhi has the maximum sanctioned number of Sanskrit teachers, followed by Bihar with 350 posts and Kerala with 220 posts. Delhi has a shortage of 163 teachers, while universities in Bihar offering Sanskrit as a subject/language are running with a shortage of 228 teachers (65 per cent vacancy) and Kerala has a shortage of 47 teachers. The HRD Minister's home state Uttarakhand is running short of 28 teachers out of total sanctioned posts of 60 Sanskrit teachers, while Uttar

Pradesh is short of 113 teachers out of a total 172 posts as the BJP-ruled state has just 59 teachers.

Gujarat, the home state of the Prime Minister, has a shortage of 12 teachers out of total the sanctioned posts of 26, while Haryana has no Sanskrit teacher as both the sanctioned posts are vacant.

Andhra Pradesh has a vacancy of 38 Sanskrit teachers out of total 109 sanctioned posts, while Assam is short of 15 teachers out of total 27 sanctioned posts. Out of total 44 posts, Rajasthan has short of 20 teachers, while West Bengal is running short of 28 Sanskrit teachers out of total strength of 53 and Madhya Pradesh has a vacancy of 26 Sanskrit teachers out of a total 37 posts.