Assam: Infrastructure work in state schools remains pending

Staff Reporter

Guwahati: A major portion of the infrastructure works sanctioned by the central Education ministry and implemented by Samagra Shiksha, Assam, for the development of the state’s schools are pending, and this drew the ire of the Project Approval Board (PAB) at a recent meeting.

It was reported by the representatives of the state at the PAB meeting that there has been a major pendency in the completion of work for infrastructure facilities in schools at the Elementary, Secondary and Higher Secondary levels since the inception of the sanction.

PAB members said that with respect to previous non-recurring approvals, for which no action has been taken up by the state government over the years, it was reiterated that as per the Samagra Shiksha framework, these committed liabilities would become the sole responsibility of the state after 5 years from the time approval is granted. The state government was urged to come up with a concrete plan of action for completing pending works that have not been started within the specified time frame.

It was found that a total of 6474 items of infrastructure work were sanctioned, and out of this, only 1339 were completed and 5135 are pending, with an average pending rate of 79.31%. To break this down, regarding the item of work labelled ‘Major Repair’, the number of works sanctioned was 973, of which only 83 were completed and 890 are pending, with a pending rate of 91.47%. In terms of the work ‘additional classrooms’, the number of works sanctioned was 3158, of which 623 were completed and 2535 are pending, at a rate of 80.27%. Regarding the work of ‘Dilapidated Building’, 715 works were sanctioned, of which zero, meaning not a single one was completed, with a pending rate of 100%. In the case of ‘Science Laboratory’, the number of works sanctioned was 1140, of which 561 were completed and 579 were pending, at a rate of 50.79%. In the item of work marked ‘Boundary Wall’, a total of 488 works were sanctioned, of which 72 were completed and 416 were pending, with a pending rate of 85.25%.

The numbers provided at the PAB meeting show the sheer incompetence of SSA in completing works related to infrastructure development in the schools of the state. Participants at the PAB meeting then asserted that “if the state is of the opinion that these works cannot be started because of certain reasons, then they may consider surrendering these works so that they may get more space to consider fresh proposals. The state is instructed to update the status of non-recurring works on the PRABANDH portal on a regular basis to prevent any discrepancies in the reported data.”

It is common knowledge that the infrastructure in the government schools in the state is of minimal standard, and there has been no initiative taken by the school education department of the state or the SSA to correct this anomaly. The standard of the infrastructure also came to light during Gunotsav, conducted by the state government every year. It is a matter of shame for the school education department that they fail to complete work sanctioned by the central government on time. The ball is now in the court of the state school education department, and it remains to be seen how they tackle it from here onwards.

 Also Read: Assam: Jamuguri Higher Secondary School shone 100% success in Higher Secondary examination (sentinelassam.com)

Also Watch: