No funds for demolished classrooms in Faridkot

Balwant Garg

Tribune News Service

Faridkot, December 22

The Education Department has decided to erect canvas tents in government primary schools in view of cold weather.

In the absence of rooms, the students in many primary and middle government schools in Faridkot district are shivering under the open sky.

Many schools in the district are without classrooms after 98 unsafe rooms in several government schools in the district were demolished on the directions of the Punjab and Haryana High Court about four month ago.

During the hearing of a PIL in August, in his affidavit, the DGSE Punjab had admitted that there were 5,358 unsafe classrooms in government schools in the state. The high court had issued directions to demolish these rooms.

As per these directions, 98 classrooms were demolished in Faridkot. After the demolition, some schools in Faridkot were not left with any room and the teachers were forced to take classes in the open.

Though the state government was supposed to provide funds to the Education Department immediately after the demolition, it was last week that the district Education Department received meagre Rs 55 lakh to construct only 10 rooms in the district.

Parminder Singh Brar, district education officer (DEO Primary), Faridkot, said until new rooms were constructed, the department had planned to provide canvas tents to the schools.

He said providing these canvas tents and mattresses as flooring was also a costly affair for the district Education Department. The rent of one tent costs about Rs 5,000 per month. In Surghuri village, one elementary school needs six tents, which amounts to Rs 30,000 a month.