Rs 22 cr released to renovate school buildings in Jhajjar

Ravinder Saini

Tribune News Service

Jhajjar, September 24

The state government has finally released a sum of Rs 22 crore for renovation of buildings of 57 government schools in the district. Most of the buildings are in a bad shape and the school heads had been demanding their repair since a long time.

As per sources, the government schools located in Kheri Khummar, Patoda, Badli, Aachhej Pahadipur, Silani and Dharana villages would be covered under the first phase of the renovation work while a survey is underway to find out other buildings in need of renovation.

The district authorities have also directed the school heads not to conduct classes in the rooms or buildings declared unsafe. They have also been asked to take steps to restrict students from going in the unsafe rooms to prevent any untoward incident.

The issue of the dilapidated buildings had been raised in these columns prominently some days ago. The report exposed how buildings of 60 government schools in Jhajjar were declared unsafe three months ago but neither were the schools provided new buildings nor were they demolished even though incidents of roof collapse had been reported from three schools. The report also revealed that 14 rooms of Government Senior Secondary School in Kheri Khummar were declared unsafe four years ago but no further action had been taken in this regard, threatening the students playing around the rooms.

The Haryana Human Rights Commission also took a suo moto action on the report and sought reply from Principal Secretary, state Education Department, and Deputy Commissioner (DC), Jhajjar, in this respect within six weeks.

DC Sonal Goel said Rs 22 crore had been sanctioned under the CM announcements. “A proposal has also been moved to the head office on the basis of a departmental report for renovation of the remaining schools in the district,” she added.

Satbir Siwach, DEO, said they, along with the PWD officials, had recently conducted a survey of all government schools in the district and found no dearth of rooms in any of these.

For students’ safety

• First phase to cover schools in Kheri Khummar, Patoda, Badli, Aachhej Pahadipur, Silani and Dharana villages while a survey is underway to find out other buildings in need of renovation
• School heads directed not to conduct classes in the rooms or buildings declared unsafe. They have also been asked to take steps to restrict students from going in the unsafe rooms to prevent any untoward incident