news details |
|
|
| 'SSA targets unmet due to general unrest' | | J&K's blatant lie, union ministry takes strong note *Funds unspent, figures exaggerated, vacancies galore | | Syed Junaid Hashmi
JAMMU, July 28: Jammu and Kashmir has been blatantly lied to the Union human resource development ministry over its inability to meet targets for implementing centrally sponsored Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) properly across the state.
It has squarely put the entire blame on 'general unrest' in the state for being unable to meet targets set by the project approval board (PAB) of Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) for Jammu and Kashmir. Helplessness expressed in fulfilling commitments on account of so called 'general unrest' by the implementing agency is extremely shocking.
Chief Minister during the so called 'general unrest' of 2009 and even 2010 has gone on record to state that it was limited to 10 police stations of Srinagar city. He even said that situation was calm and peaceful elsewhere in the state. One does not need to make of mention of the fact that a major portion of SSA scheme is being implemented across Jammu and Ladakh regions also.
Both were peaceful and clam during the last two financial years. Project director of SSA alongwith his team during 167th meeting of Project Approval Board (PAB) held on May 9, 2011 at New Delhi kept referring to 'general unrest across the state' in response to almost every other query of PAB. He said that child tracking system and school mapping exercise could not be carried out due to 'general unrest'.
Sources said that union ministry accepted the argument and allowed the state to complete these two important aspects of SSA during this financial year. They added that PAB was also severely critical of J&K being unable to spend SSA funds expeditiously. Board maintained that financial achievement is extremely low at 27.11 percent and there are large number of vacancies while the pace of civil works is extremely slow.
Board rebutted J&K's proposal for acquiring rented accommodations for running schools and other institutions to be catered under SSA. It said "It is obviously not a good proposition to be spending on payment of rent when fund for construction of buildings is already available." Regarding slow pace of work, union ministry team said that it is due to non-availability of technical staff at the state, district level, block and field level.
Appraisal Team of union ministry also objected to figure of pending works given by the state team. It said that contrary to the figure of 6622 pending works given by the state team, the fact remains that as many as 16749 works are pending. The team asserted that there has been no progress in commissioning 3rd party evaluation of civil works since the inception of Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) scheme.
It said that state and district plan hardly gave any data or details regarding the facts on ground. Further, appraisal team stated that as per manual on financial management and procurement, ZEO has no role in funds flow under SSA. However, in the case of J&K, ZEO distributes the first installment when the contractor completes the work upto plinth level, second installment when work is completed upto roof level and third installment when work is nearing completion and fourth installment when the work is completed.
It said that there is no agreement and the work is done entirely at the discretion of ZEO and it usually takes one year 18 months to complete the work while adding that some works are not completed even after 2 years, whereas normal time taken should not be more than 6 months. The team said that state has 10262 teacher vacancies under state quota and 1958 teacher vacancies under SSA.
Appraisal team opined that state needs to fill up all the vacancies at the state, district and sub-district levels. It maintained that 36, 206 and 630 sanctioned posts are vacant at the state and district level respectively. The team also pointed towards 35,268 children who have remained un-reached from last year.
Team took note of the fact that J&K continues to have board examinations at class 8th level and cluster level examinations at class 3 and 5 while informing the state about the urgent need to end these examinations. It said that state has 1, 9498 untrained teachers while not even a single teacher was imparted training during 2010-11. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
STOCK UPDATE |
|
|
 |
| BSE
Sensex |
 |
| NSE
Nifty |
|
|
| |
CRICKET UPDATE |
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
