Amend rules, get MLA fund for schools: Tanvir Sait

Bengaluru: Primary and Secondary Education Minister, Tanvir Sait has requested the government to amend the rules to allow state legislators  to contribute 30 per cent of their  local area development fund for repair of government school buildings.

Replying to Mr T A Sarawana of the JD(S) in the Legislative Council on Friday, the minister said there was no provision at present for the legislators to divert money from the local area development fund for repair of government school buildings in their respective constituencies. “Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister T.B. Jayachandra has been requested to make the necessary amendments to the rules,” he said, explaining that although the department had been allotted Rs 18,266 crore in the budget for 2017-18, almost all the money went towards paying salaries of teachers and other work, with hardly anything left for repair of school buildings.

“The funds received under the Sarva Shikshana Abhiyan can be used only for construction of new classrooms but not repairs. Despite this the government has released Rs 40 lakh to each Assembly constituency to undertake repair of classrooms. As many as 36,000 classrooms have been identified for demolition and another 31,000 for immediate repairs,” he said, adding that although several non-governmental organisations were coming forward to construct toilets and  provide other amenities, they had been told to build new classrooms instead.