Udhampur: FIRs to be lodged over failure of completion of

Jammu and Kashmir government has decided to lodge cases against 57 Village Education Committees (VEC) and the officials of the school education department for their alleged failure to complete the construction works of schools in Udhampur district.
A decision was taken at a meeting headed by District Development Commissioner Shahid Iqbal Choudhary to lodge FIRs against 57 VECs and school education department officials for their alleged delinquency leading to parking of funds for 2-8 years in various cases, an official spokesman said.
The meeting recommended that FIRs be registered and criminal proceedings initiated for 30 works abandoned by VECs, he said.

The VECs' members and secretaries, who are teachers of concerned schools, will be booked by concerned SHOs for wasteful expenditure, misappropriation and undue willful delay in construction of buildings, he added.
Chaudhary issued directions for withdrawal of funds from VECs, recovery of interest accrued, criminal proceedings against defaulters and time-bound construction of schools.
He also directed officers to initiate the construction with in convergence with MGNREGA. Issues pertaining to more than 80 buildings were also resolved in consultations with stakeholders in the meeting.

After a three month long planning exercise, the district administration has initiated the process of setting up of 445 school buildings which were awaiting construction due to cost escalation, high carriage cost, land disputes and other reasons since 2007-08.

These include additional classrooms, head teacher rooms and primary school buildings.
He said 60 buildings will be completed with funding of Rs 109.65 lakh available under Sarva Siksha Abhiyan (SSA) while Rs 36.60 lakh will be provided under MGNREGA convergence.
Tehsildars have been tasked with resolution of land disputes in 38 cases and work will commence within 10 days.
"Teams of block development officers, Tehsildars and ZEOs have been constituted for daily monitoring of progress which will be updated online", he said.