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| Govt to crack down on erring officials | | Poor construction of school buildings | | Et Report
Doda, Sept 11 : The state government has decided to crack down on the erring officials responsible for poor construction of School buildings in Doda and Kishtwar districts sponsored by Sarva Shikhsha Abhiyan (SSA).The decision came after an education department report had revealed that around 200 school buildings were fully damaged in the May 1 quake.
The survey was conducted by the department to access the damages in the school buildings that developed cracks after a quake of 5.8 magnitude hit valley. The epicenter was 15 kilometers northeast from Bhaderwah towards Himachal Pradesh.The twin districts of Kishtwar and Doda were the hardest hit by the quake where nearly 400 structures, including schools, hospitals and houses, developed cracks. State Project Director (SPD), SSA, S C Sawhney said they will take action against all the involved people responsible for poor and 'unsafe' construction of SSA school buildings. "We have identified the people who are involved in this. We forwarded the report to higher authorities as well," Sawhney said. Notably, the department earlier engaged NABCON, a subsidiary of National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) as third party to ascertain the causes of the damages in the school buildings. "We have identified the erring officials and other involved people as per the report submitted by NABCON."
While referring to the report submitted by NABCON, he said strict action will be taken against the then Chief Education Officer (CEO), Zonal Education Officer (ZEO) and members of Village Educational Committee (VEC) as identified during assessment by the agency. "Contractors won't be spared as well. They will also face the music for using sub standard material in buildings. "Meanwhile, officials in the department said that a meeting was also conducted by Secretary Education Hridesh Kumar Singh and it was decided that action will be taken against the then concerned officials for their carelessness.As reported earlier, a study of Civil Works had revealed that no proper strategy was followed to construct quake-resistant buildings. Instead the buildings were rendered unsafe by using faulty designs, substandard material in constructing school buildings. Meanwhile, MoS Education Feroz Ahmad Khan said strict action will be taken against the erring officials, as identified by the assessment report.
The Minister said that the inspection will be carried throughout the state with Kashmir falling in seismic zone five and poor constructions posing potential threat to the security of children studying in these school buildings. "Including Kashmir all the three regions will be covered under the survey to identify the poor constructions of these buildings." |
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