The Election Commission of India (ECI) has augmented fundsfor the facelift of the government schools identified as polling stations forthe upcoming parliamentary and assembly elections in J&K.
With this, the school education department has started anextensive exercise to equip the schools with basic facilities like drinkingwater, toilet and electricity. The department has also roped in the districtadministrations for expediting the process of construction and renovation inthese schools.
As per official figures, the ECI has designated 859 pollingstations in Baramulla district including 780 booths in 602 government schools.”Most of these schools are of high and higher secondary standard. We arepreparing a list of the schools designated as polling stations, which lack thebasic facilities,” an official said.
Out of 602 government schools designated as pollingstations, 301 are without electricity, 110 sans drinking water and 452 schoolslack ramps.
“The department has strict directions to provide the basicfacilities including ramps in these schools prior to elections so that voterswon’t face any inconvenience,” the official said, adding that post-election thefacilities can be availed by the students.
“The face-lift of schools has been started for parliament aswell as assembly elections. ECI has released an amount of Rs 1 crore to thedistrict for this purpose,” the official said.
Similarly, 587 polling stations will be set up in Kupwaradistrict with 550 in government schools. “We have directions to equip theseschools with facilities for voting purpose. As of now no directions have beenreceived with regard to the accommodation of the additional companies ofparamilitary troops called in valley for election purpose,” an official said.
An official said the ECI stated that there should be nodearth of facilities in such schools.
“Earlier it was decided that funds will be released toeducation department but later the ECI decided to release the funds to DCs concernedfor utilization through concerned executing agencies,” the official said.
Meanwhile, the education department has issued a circularstating that the repair of non-functional toilets should be taken up by”dovetailing with available funds of the ECI for the schools identified aspolling stations.”
“For schools other than polling stations, the existing fundsavailable with director concerned should be used for making the toiletsfunctional,” reads the circular.
The government has also constituted district levelcommittees headed by concerned deputy commissioners (DCs) to assess andexpedite the process for providing drinking water facility and electricity inschools.
The education department has also released the official dataof schools sans basic facility of druinking water, toilets and electricity inthe state.
As per the official data, around 16597 government schoolsincluding 10817 primary schools, 5410 middle schools, 350 high schools and 20higher secondary schools are without electricity facility.
There are around 23773 government schools in the state outof which 1933 schools including primary schools 1353, middle schools 432, highschools 93 and higher secondary schools 55, are without boys’ toilets.
Also, 1110 government schools including 872 primary schools,165 middle schools, 38 high schools and 35 higher secondary schools are withouttoilets for girl students.