Ludhiana govt schools receive ₹75-lakh grant for construction of new classrooms

The state government sent the funds to Ludhiana Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan office from where they were e-transferred to the schools

In a major relief to staff and students, 17 government schools here have received a grant of Rs 75 lakh for the construction of 25 new classrooms.

New classrooms being constructed at Government Model Senior Secondary Smart School, PAU, in Ludhiana on Saturday. (Harsimar Pal Singh/HT)

The state government had sent the funds to the Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) office, Ludhiana from where the amount was e-transferred to the schools.

Government Primary School, Jahangirpur has received a grant of Rs 9 lakh for construction of three new classrooms. The school, situated at Rahon Road, has five classrooms which had been declared unsafe two years ago. The school authorities had been forced to adjust students of two classes at a nearby dharamsala, another two at Gurdwara Sahib, and one class on the school premises.

Government Model Senior Secondary Smart School, Punjab Agricultural University, got Rs 15 lakh to come up with five new rooms as the school strength has reached 4,300. School principal Sanjeev Thapar said, “To accommodate 4,300 students, we require more rooms and authorities have transferred the grants for the construction of the same. We will be constructing the five rooms in the primary section building.”

GOVERNMENT HIGH SCHOOL, SUNET RECEIVES GRANT FOR TWO CLASSROOMS

Students of Classes 6 and 7 of Sunet’s Government High School had been attending classes in the school’s corridors for the past two years. The public works department had declared one of the school’s two blocks unsafe in the second week of August in 2018.

The ‘unsafe’ block had nine rooms, five of which were classrooms while the remaining ones were being used as an office, a clerk room, a home science laboratory, and a chowkidar room. School headmaster Ravinder Singh said, “We have received grants for construction of two classrooms but we require around 15 classrooms to accommodate 805 students. We are already constructing one new classroom with the staff and NRI’s contributions.”

Rajinder Kaur, district education officer, elementary, said, “We have transferred the grants to the 17 schools so that construction work can be started by the school authorities.”