New mechanism to monitor incomplete education projects

Vikas Sharma

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Tribune News Service

JAMMU, June 24

The Project Implementing Agency (PIA), constituted by the school education department, has devised a new mechanism to ensure proper monitoring of incomplete projects in schools of the state.

Pertinently, the PIA was constituted in May at the administrative department level and nodal officers were nominated at the divisional level, ‘Samagra Shiksha’ and district level, thereby clearly defining the role and responsibility of the agency and the nodal officers.

The state finance department had also made a roadmap for streamlining the process of funding by the J&K Infrastructure Development Finance Corporation (JKIDFC).

Sources said under the new mechanism, the Chief Education Officers (CEOs), along with the executive engineers concerned, would physically verify the approved projects being executed through school education, road and buildings (R&B) or public health engineering (PHE) department.

The CEOs will also highlight problems/ bottlenecks in the projects, if any, after which the joint director, school education department, would randomly verify the works in the district under his jurisdiction.

The joint director would then submit the consolidated report, along with project-wise bottlenecks, after every 15 days, to the school education department.

“As per the new mechanism, the director of school education department and the director of ‘Samagra Shisksha’ project will review the progress of the projects and ensure that they are completed within the timeline fixed by the PIA,” an official said.

“In March, Rs 43 crore was sanctioned by the government to upgrade infrastructure of more than 2,300 state-run high and higher secondary schools. The new system put in place by the PIA will help in completing the languishing projects within the stipulated time,” the official added.

As per the data available, there are 23,747 state-run schools, including 12,252 in Jammu Division and 11,495 in Kashmir Division.