Nasir Azam
Srinagar, May 31: The Jammu & Kashmir government is surrendering more than 600 works approved under different schemes in the school education sector.
Documents in possession lay bare that government of J&K has proposed to surrender more than 600 civil works approved by the Government of India in 2018-19 and 2019-20, but couldn’t be taken up for execution due to a host of reasons. “J&K UT is also proposing to surrender more than 600 different types of not taken up works of 2018-19 & 2019-20 during current PAB amounting to Rs 67 crore,” reads minutes of the meeting of project approval Board (PAB) for the Jammu & Kashmir under Samagra Shiksha scheme for the financial year 2023-2024.
The meeting of the project approval board (PAB) for considering the annual work plan & budget (AWP&B) under Samagra Shiksha for Jammu & Kashmir was held on May 03, 2023 under the chairpersonship of secretary (School Education & Literacy), Union Ministry of Education.
In 2021, the Centre had asked the J & K government to submit a proposal for surrendering civil works which were approved under the SSA and RMSA schemes, but couldn’t be taken up for execution till 2019-20.
In the PAB meeting held this year, the J&K government submitted that about 800 civil works including girls hostels, KGBVs, school buildings have been completed in 2022-23 and construction of about 3300 works are at different stages and shall be completed in the next six months.
“2538 works have been completed out of sanctioned works. The expenditure under the civil work component for the current year remained Rs160 crore (including spill-over works), which is quite high as compared to previous years, “a record note of the PAB meeting reveals.
The Samagra Shiksha scheme was unveiled by the Centre after subsuming Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA) and Teacher Education (TE) schemes.
