Srinagar, June 21: The centrally sponsored scheme, Sakshar Bharat Mission has been grounded in Valley following the Education department’s failure to make an agreement with Ministry of Human Resources Development (MHRD) and the notified bank for the release and distribution of funds.
 The Mission, which is a flagship programme of MHRD, for raising the female literacy rate in the country, was to be implemented in 13 erstwhile districts of Jammu and Kashmir through State Literary Mission Authority (SLMA) and for effective fund flow, a tripartite agreement was to be signed between MHRD/National Literacy Mission Authority (NLMA), SLMA and a notified bank.
 As per guidelines, J&K SLMA had to open a saving account in a Nationalised bank notified by the NLMA (State Bank of India in this case) for release of grants for the implementation of scheme at different levels. “However, the agreement is still pending due to which the release of funds has been stopped,” sources told Greater Kashmir.
 “The Education department has not been able to take any decision till date regarding the signing of agreement,” they said.
 Sources said various meetings were conducted by SLMA in which Minister of Education, Commissioner Secretary Education, Director School Education and Director State Resource Centre Kashmir University were present, but till date nothing substantial has came out of these.
 In the scheme, which was launched on September 8, 2009 in India, Rs 76 Cr were allotted to Jammu and Kashmir as per approved norms of NLMA, till March 3, 2012. “The Mobilization phase (Phase-I) was to be completed between September-December, 2009 and the teaching phase was supposed to start in January-2010. Accordingly the evaluation phase was to be completed in September, 2010,” source said.
 However, contrary to the guidelines, the Education department was yet to start the mobilization and they had yet to facilitate the funds release due to the delay in signing of agreement, sources revealed.
 They said, “The department has recommended J&K Bank for the distribution of funds at the lower level, which ministry has accepted.” 
 They said the final approval to involve J&K Bank would be decided only after the education department would send the recommendation letter to the NLMA/MHRD.
 From the launch of scheme, MHRD has been sending many letters to the Education department calling for implementation of the scheme. As per the letter dated June 11, 2010 from HRD to the then Secretary/Commissioner G A Peer, the concerned department was asked to reconstitute SLMA and also constitute implementation committees of SBM at State/district/block/Gram Panchayat level.
 The letter also urged the department to convey action taken and progress achieved under the programme at regular intervals to the Union Department of School Education and Literacy.
 Accordingly, the State government constituted SLMA in June last year, but thereafter, no progress has been done, sources added.
 Repeated attempts to contact the Education Minister, Peerzada Muhammad Sayeed and Commissioner Secretary, Naseema Lanker proved unsuccessful.

Lastupdate on : Tue, 21 Jun 2011 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Tue, 21 Jun 2011 18:30:00 GMT
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