In a major setback, the J&K government has withdrawn the engineering wing from to the School Education Department (SED) which has the work on over 100 under construction and abandoned buildings across J&K.
The wing was withdrawn following the government decision to merge the engineering wings of 15 departments with Public Works department.
The engineering was withdrawn at a time when the department has a pending construction of over 1000 school buildings sanctioned under erstwhile SSA and RMSA scheme by the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD).
Most of the school buildings approved under erstwhile SSA and RMSA schemes in J&K await execution of construction work over the past many years.
Also, the work on hundreds of schools buildings sanctioned over the years has been left midway by the contractors and these buildings do not have any watch and ward from the department, leaving them abandoned.
All these buildings were left abandoned over the years after the construction was left midway by the contractors.
“Some of these buildings were sanctioned from the period of 2005 to 2010 while some were sanctioned in between 2012-2015,” an official said.
The department failed to complete the construction of these school buildings in a time bound manner, the project faced cost escalation which further delayed the completion of the work. With the result the number of abandoned school buildings swelled up.
Most of the school buildings constructed under erstwhile Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) in J&K were lying abandoned as the government has failed to come up with a plan for their utilisation despite spending crores of rupees on the projects.
As the buildings were left abandoned for many years, the school education department constituted engineering wings in the department to execute new and pending construction works.
This wing was constituted to avoid delay in completion of the projects and cost escalation. The engineering wing had four divisions – two each in Jammu and Kashmir including Ladakh. Each division was headed by an executive engineer who was on deputation from R&B department.
Division first includes the areas falling in central and north Kashmir district while as division second has jurisdiction over south Kashmir districts including Leh and Kargil. Division three and four includes Jammu, Sambha, Kathua, Rajouri, Poonch and Doda.
“After the constitution of engineering, the construction work was expedited on some school buildings to complete the project. With this, the number of abandoned schoo,l buildings was going down and the students were given adequate accommodation in schools as well,” the official said.
Following the government decision to withdraw the engineering wing of the school education department, the construction work on the school buildings has again hit a roadblock.
Despite the Government of India (GoI) pumping large sums of money for infrastructural up gradation of the schools, the investment literally went down the drain in absence of proper planning in J&K.
Secretary School Education Department B K Singh said the department was aware about the issue and matter will be resolved. “It is true that buildings are left abandoned but we will find a way out to complete the construction,” he said