‘Haphazard constructions at schools’: Bihar education dept asks for drone videos

The Bihar Education Project Council (BEPC) has told its engineers to provide drone footage of ongoing infrastructure works in the state’s schools over concerns over haphazard constructions at the schools, people familiar with the matter said.

The instruction was communicated on Sunday following feedback from additional chief secretary(ACS) KK Pathak. HT has reviewed a copy of the letter sent by BPEC civil work manager Bhola Prasad Singh.

“The BEPC as well as the Bihar State Educational Infrastructure Development Corporation (BSEIDC) has carried out infrastructure development in schools at breakneck speed, but mindlessly,” said the directive.

“On an average, infrastructure development work to the tune of ₹1,000-1,500 crore is done every year, but due to haphazard construction there is no space left even for playground or prayers in schools. The constructions are so haphazard that the campus has been completely disturbed,” it added.

ACS Pathak had raised concerns over large-scale deviation in ongoing constructions from the approved map and absence of planning for waste, drainage, sewerage disposal, etc.

The BEPC directive has said that the infrastructure development work taken up in any school must be fully completed to cater to all the existing needs.

“Make available the drone footage of all the ongoing work, which the project director would himself see. The drone footage should be comprehensive so that integrated school development plan could be prepared both for ongoing work as well as planned work,” it said.

Maintaining that the Bihar project director’s nod will be mandatory before taking up any new scheme, it has been made clear that further work would be done only after integrated development plan to make optimal utilisation of space for the students.

“Toilets have to be two floors- the lower floor for the boys and the upper exclusively for the girls. They must have facility of running tap water and flushing,” it said.

Earlier, in a letter to all the district magistrates (DMs), Pathak had flagged the poor condition of government schools in Bihar in terms of upkeep, provision of basic facilities like drinking water and toilets and academic atmosphere, while over ₹1,400 crore remained unutilised in their various bank accounts, apart from the account of Centre’s flagship Samagra Shiksha Abhiyaan (SSA).

He had given a breakup of the amount remaining unutilised - ₹2,61.5-crore in primary schools in the Bihar government accounts, ₹1,108.8 crore in the account under development fund and student fund heads, besides ₹30.8 crore in the government fund head in the secondary and higher secondary schools.

Though BSEIDC was set up exclusively for development of buildings and classrooms in educational institutions, it could not complete even chief minister Nitish Kumar’s dream project Simultala Awasiya Vidyalaya on time and it awaits its campus more than a decade after its inception.

“It is a paradox, why the condition of schools remains poor with lack of even lighting and seating facilities despite so much funds available,” Pathak wrote after his initial days of inspection and changed the policy to vest administrative and financial powers to headmasters.

Pathak’s initiative also earned praise from the state’s education minister Chandrashekhar, who had engaged in a letter war with him, after which he did not attend office for 22 days.

“Whatever good is happening should be continued. “Ione may have differences with his style, not his work,” the minister said.

“No body can dispute his (Pathak’s) ability to get work done. One may have differences with his style, but he gets things delivered and that is what is important,” Shivanand Tiwari, senior leader of the Rashtirya Janata Dal (RJD), which holds the education portfolio in the Grand Alliance (GA) government, told a television channel.

BJP spokesman Nikhil Anand said that Pathak has shown how badly education was managed all these years. “Else, he may not have to do so much hard work to get even the basics right. It is the government schools where the wards of poor study,” he said.