Besides, the high school section does not have adequate teaching staff. Teachers handling the middle school are hence asked to take classes for the high school students. But the Department of Woman and Child Welfare, under whose purview the school falls, has simply left the matter to worsen. The Directorate for the Welfare of the Disabled has also joined hands.

Addressing a press conference here on Monday, Dattu Agarwal, president of the Bharatiya Welfare Association for the Blind, said the post of superintendent has been lying vacant for the past one year. "The superintendent is the mostimportant person of the blind school. In his absence, the school has become an orphan. Besides, the residential school does not have a warden," Agarwal said.

He said many leaders, including the leader of the Opposition in the Assembly Mallikarjun Kharge, had written to the Chief Minister and the minister for Woman and Child Welfare Vimalabai Deshmukh, asking them to post a full-time superintendent at the school. He alleged that the higher authorities of the department were deliberately not posting anybody at the school. "One officer had volunteered to come over to Gulbarga as superintendent. But the authorities in the department threatened him and got a letter from him saying he was unwilling to come to Gulbarga," Agarwal charged.

Agarwal urged the Chief Minister to take a personal interest in the matter and post a superintendent at the school immediately.