Srinagar, Nov 11: With the Jammu and Kashmir Government failing to spend central funds worth crores of rupees under the flagship Sakshar Bharat Mission programme, the Ministry of Human Resource Development at Government of India has decided to divert funds for J&K to the North-East states in next fiscal. The State has shown zero progress to implement the scheme even after three years of its introduction.
 “There is an unspent amount of Rs 11 crores lying in the State Bank of India which the state government has not withdrawn for unknown reasons. With the result, the Ministry has asked the National Literacy Mission Authority to divert the funds to the north eastern states,” an official source, privy to the development, said.
 The funds were to be withdrawn by the State Literacy Mission Authority of the Department of Education. “But SLMA is on paper only. The district administrations have the liability of lakhs of rupees but the SLMA is not releasing the funds for unknown reasons,” sources said.
 Sources said none of the officials from J&K attended a recent meeting in New Delhi with regard to the Sakshar Bharat Mission. “SLMA representatives from every state attended the meeting except J&K. So the state government’s progress was marked as zero.” In fact the State Literacy Mission Authority—which is tasked to upload the progress of the scheme—never uploaded anything on the web portal, thus violating the MHRD guidelines,” the sources said.
 The flagship Sakshar Bharat Mission was introduced in Jammu and Kashmir in 2009 in a bid to take education to the people who have never had a chance to join a school. Age was not a bar.
 Director School Education Kashmir, Muhammad Shafi Rather, who is also the project director, refused to comment matter. “Commissioner/Secretary School Education would be the best person to talk to,” he told Greater Kashmir.
 Commissioner/Secretary Farooq Ahmad Faktoo said the funds lying in the State Bank of India had to be withdrawn on Block and Panchayat levels in J&K. “The reason for not withdrawing the central funds from the State Bank is that we have to open accounts on Black and Panchayat levels. We are on job to open accounts on block levels but at Panchayat level it will take some time,” he said.
 Asked about the Ministry’s proposed move to divert funds for JK to north eastern states, Faktoo said he had no idea about the matter.

Lastupdate on : Sun, 11 Nov 2012 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Sun, 11 Nov 2012 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Mon, 12 Nov 2012 00:00:00 IST