‘Uncaring’ for the girl child
Govt failed to construct hostels for girl students
Srinagar: The school education department has miserably failed to complete the construction work on girls’ hostels sanctioned by ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) under the erstwhile RMSA scheme.
The hostels were approved for educationally backward blocks (EBBs) of J&K state wherein 39 were supposed to come up in Kashmir, 24 in Jammu and five in Ladakh regions respectively.
All these hostels were earlier approved in year 2012-13 but the then state government didn’t start the construction work on these hostels till 20115. Later, the then education minister Naeem Akhtar got the previous approvals cancelled by the MHRD in the project approval board (PAB) meeting and sought new approvals for the construction of these hostels as per the revised rates.
After the revised approval the project cost for each girls’ hostel was approved at the rate of Rs 1crore. “But out of 68 girls’ hostels only two have been completed in Jammu region,” an official privy to the development, said.
He said the MHRD has reprimanded the officials of state education department for their failure to make the hostels operational.
“MHRD had given authorization to school education department for making these hostels functional in rented accommodations till the buildings will be completed,” the official said.
Out of 68 girls hostel sanctioned to the state under the erstwhile RMSA scheme, not a single girls hostel has been made functional so far. According to the official, work on 59 hostels is in progress while seven are yet to be taken up.
“After getting revised approval the work could not be started due to five month long summer uprising in Kashmiri which delay setting up of these hostels for girl students enrolled in secondary and higher secondary schools,” the official said.
The construction work on these hostels is being executed by Roads and Buildings (R&B) Department.
State project director Samagra Shiksha Arun Kumar Manhas said the work on girls’ hostels was going on and funds were already released to the executing agency.
“We have been assured by R&B department that work on these hostels will be completed in a phased manner. We are hopeful that some will be put to use by the end of this year,” he added.