Two years on, Gurdaspur school project mired in red tape
Ravi Dhaliwal
Tribune News Service
Gurdaspur, July 26
The construction of Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya (JNV) — a Union Government-funded venture aimed at imparting free quality education to bright rural students – is mired in red tape in this educationally backward district.
The project has been in the pipeline for the last two years. Both the district administration and the Punjab Technical Education Department, apart from exchanging letters over the selection of site for the temporary school, have not been able to make any headway.
Gurdaspur district had a successfully running JNV at Najochak village. After the district was bifurcated in July 2011 into Gurdaspur and Pathankot districts, Najochak village came in Pathankot, leaving this district bereft of such an institute.
About two years ago, the administration in collaboration with the Chandigarh-based JNV Samiti, responsible for the upkeep of such institutes across the country, decided to establish the school on 30 acres of panchayat land at Kalanaur village, 20 km from Gurdaspur.
The paper work was completed but the samiti threw a spanner in the works by insisting that a temporary JNV, which could house 240 students (from Classes VI to XII) and take care of their boarding and lodging, should be established before the construction on the permanent school in Kalanaur commences.
District administration officials found themselves on the back foot as finding a temporary location presented its own set of problems. Two sites were identified but both the proposals were rejected.
When contacted, Deputy Commissioner Abhinav Trikha said, “I am doing my best to ensure that the JNV is established in this district. Though the site for the permanent building has been finalised, the selection of site for the temporary school is posing problems.”
