Centre’s no to funds for tablets, PCs in schools

Naina Mishra

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, July 20

The Central Government has refused to sanction funds to Punjab for distribution of tablets, laptops and computers in government schools, under the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) component of ‘Samagra Shiksha’, due to the existing backlog in execution of digital boards in 331 schools.

An outlay of Rs 662 lakh was estimated to provide 1,800 SMART classrooms/ digital boards for 331 schools under the Programme Approval Board (PAB) meeting 2019-20 of the state.

This year, Punjab proposed tablets/ laptops/ notebooks/ computers in 2,667 elementary schools and 3,184 secondary schools. However, the Ministry of Human Resource and Development (MHRD), in its appraisal report, observed that the aforementioned proposal would not be recommended as 331 schools were not functional yet, as per the progress report of ICT in Project Monitoring System (PMS).

Solar power plants of 5KW capacity for 1,015 senior secondary schools were also proposed at a unit cost of Rs 3.50 lakh, under the Annual Work Plan & Budget (AWP&B) 2019-20. The total cost estimated for solar power panels was Rs 3,552.50 lakh. However, the ministry did not recommend the same.

5,816 works not taken up

Around 15 per cent of civil works under Punjab School Education are lying untouched till date, as 5,816 works were not taken up out of the total budget sanctioned by the HRD ministry.

Out of the 11,77,819 cumulative works sanctioned under elementary education, 42 works are in progress and 4,278 works had not been started up to March 2019. Around 85 per cent of funds were spent, of the total allocation of Rs 1,72,791.83 lakh.

Around 100 works are in progress out of the 12,404 cumulative works sanctioned under secondary education, while 10,830 works have been completed and 1,538 works had not been started up to March 2019. Out of the total allocation of Rs. 76,122.586 lakh, expenditure of Rs 62,705.3083 lakh has been incurred until March 2019. Also, around 1,231 additional classrooms are yet to be constructed.

However, the state had proposed 2,137 additional classrooms up to Class VIII and 943 classrooms for Class XI and XII, which were not recommended by the ministry due to the existing backlog.