Develop model school in every block: CM

BHUBANESWAR: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has asked the district collectors to review construction of hostel buildings for girl students.Chief Minister on Tuesday said basic amenities like drinking water, toilets and electricity should be ensured in all the hostels. The sub-collectors and block development officers (BDOs) must conduct surprise checking at the hostels and CDPOs supervise the functioning of girls hostels regularly, he said. He was reviewing the progress of the scheme at the collectors’ conference.Naveen commended the steps taken by Malkangiri, Ganjam and Mayurbhanj districts to get tribal students admission in Kendriya Vidyalayas and other reputed schools in the district. He said sports infrastructure should be improved in tribal schools and hostels by converging funds from various sources. “This can be taken up in a phased manner and I would appreciate if at least one school in every block is developed as a model school by the end of this year,” he said. He instructed the Revenue Divisional Commissioners (RDCs) to follow up on this with the collectors on a regular basis. As a part of the Government strategy to provide opportunity to tribal girls to complete school education, the State Government has started construction of 100-seater hostels since 2007-08. Official sources said that this was being done to check dropouts and also encourage girls to attend school. In fact, out of the 2,362 such hostels sanctioned till 2009-10, already 1,422 have been made operational and another 400 are likely to be ready by next month. Since this intervention has been successful in achieving its objectives, 1,000 more such hostels have been sanctioned in 2011-12. The Government has sanctioned Rs 50 lakh for each of the hostels including civil construction work, warden’s quarter and amenities. The Chief Minister also commended the collectors for the success in disposing of claims under the Forest Rights Act (FRA). So far, about 2,92,275 individual beneficiaries have been covered. Naveen asked the collectors to dispose of the pending individual claims in a time-bound manner. He asked the collectors to review the implementation of the FRA on a monthly basis.