Drive to free govt school buildings from encroachment in U.P. soon

Director general (DG), school education, U.P., Vijay Kiran Anand on July 24 wrote a letter to all district magistrates and Basic Shiksha Adhikaris to take effective action and get the government property freed

The state basic education department with the help of district administrations will run a special drive to free government primary, upper primary and Kasturba Gandhi girls’ schools from encroachment and to protect plots lying vacant adjacent to these schools.

A class under way at a govt primary school in Prayagraj. (Ht file)

Director general (DG), school education, U.P., Vijay Kiran Anand on July 24 wrote a letter to all district magistrates and Basic Shiksha Adhikaris to take effective action and get the government property freed as it was affecting education work in schools. Anand said some of these encroachments were temporary while few could be permanent.

There are 1.33 lakh government primary and upper primary schools in Uttar Pradesh where 1.9 crore students are enrolled. There are also 740 Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalayas in the state.

In this drive, proper demarcation of the land of all the primary, upper primary and Kasturba Gandhi girls’ schools run by the basic education department will be done. The DMs and BSAs were told that it should be done in a time-bound manner and all such land records should be entered in the revenue records as per rules.

Anand in his letter asked the officials to ensure immediate action because not only the academic work was getting affected but government property was also getting damaged.

The DG, school education, said, “The government officials will soon carry out survey of the lands of primary/ upper primary and Kasturba Gandhi girls’ schools. And if the lands of these schools have been encroached, all such encroachments should be identified and immediate action should be taken to remove them in a time bound manner and it should also be ensured that it is not repeated in future.”

Besides, instructions have also been given for the construction of boundary walls and gates in government schools where they are lacking. This should be done in a time-bound manner by merging the funds of gram panchayat with MNREGA to prevent any further encroachment. The government officials were told to run a demarcation campaign for all above-mentioned schools.