Lack of quality in construction of additional class rooms under SSA
Source: Hueiyen News Service
Imphal, June 01 2011:
Due to lack of quality control at the time of construction, many walls of additional classrooms constructed under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) scheme with Village Education Committee have collapsed.
Apart from this, many other buildings are still left incomplete.
The collapse of the walls and incomplete buildings were found when Hueiyen Lanpao conducted a spot verification of some schools in Imphal East district.
Abandoned construction works before completion and sub-standard construction were detected in most of the schools.
The Irilbung High School and Keirao Social Primary School were among other schools where construction of additional class rooms remain incomplete.
The plaster of the brick walls of the incomplete buildings were found peeled off the walls apart from collapses of some portions.
Bills for the contract works of the buildings have already been withdrawn.
The same conditions were also found in other schools like Keirao Bitra Awang Leikai LP School, Madan Mohon Girls' High School, Keikhu Kabui Primary School etc.
Reduction of the size of the class rooms against the guidelines, absence of RCC (Reinforced Cement Concrete) pillars was also detected.
As per the guidelines provided at the time of awarding the construction work of a building with a fund of ' 1.50 lakh, each class room is to have a length of 18 feet and a width of 14 feet.
A verandah of 6 feet is to be attached to each building.
On the other hand a building to be constructed at a cost of ' 4.36 lakh should have a length of 27 feet and a width of 16 feet.
All buildings should have a ramp for students with disabilities.
An official source said that the construction of these additional class room buildings were taken up with funds earmarked by the SSA authority as an accessory work programme for the upgradation of these government schools.
An amount of '1.50 lakh each were sanctioned for upgradation of 68 lower primary schools to junior primary schools by constructing additional class rooms and '2 lakh for the construction of additional class rooms for 42 junior high schools having classes from I to VIII .
Apart form this, under the same accessory work programme for the year 2010-11, funds amounting to ' 4.36 lakh each were sanctioned to 102 schools for construction of additional class rooms.
The official source further said that funds were sanctioned for construction of additional class rooms to another 110 schools during 2009-10 but completion reports of only 28 schools have been submitted to the SSA authority.
Final bills for 28 schools have been cleared, for the remaining, the final bills are yet to be released.
The contract work of the additional class rooms were given to Village Educational Committee (VEC).
The committee is headed by head masters of each school .
The roofing material (GI sheet) is supplied in kind after the VEC submitted final bills for the construction.
An additional fund of ' 20,000 is provided as charges for roofing, the source disclosed.