Who should be punished?
- The government must give this case to a professional investigating agency to identify the officers for such a blunder.
jj correspondent
Bani, Nov 17: On November 17, two videos of two different schools falling in two separate districts of Jammu province were made viral by different peoples and in one case of Reasi the School Education Department suspended a teacher. But in another case of Kathua disitrct an enquiry is going to ascertain that why the building was left abandoned and now it turned into dilapidated condition, whereas ZEO Bani has constituted a committee on the directions of CEO Kathua.
The second video was from Bani Zone of Kathua district and Jammu province in which a school building was shown by a person in dilapidated condition, which was left abandoned by the School Education Department and R&B (PWD) department. Actually building belongs to a Government High School, Kanthal Zone Bani district Kathua. Though the building is more than 2 kilometers away from the existing said school yet the building is of the Government High School Kanthal. The reason for constructing the school building away from the existing building surfaced as due to unavailability of land nearby the school. During the conversation with ZEO Bani Chaman Lal, CEO Kathua PL Thappa and concerned Executive Engineer PWD Bharat Bhushan it has come to know that the issue of building is four years old and as per their statement it is of 2019.
Since 2019, both the department forgot about the building as they abandoned it, which was constructed with the peoples’ hard earned money. As usual it is habit of often government officers/employees that they very careful about their salaries but not about the money which is used for the public welfare. It is matter of curse for such officers who do not care for the public money/property, when they are posted for it.
It was surfaced that the then concerned education officers refused to take over the said building by making an excuse that some tile works is remaining and this gave a long rope to the PWD officers and they abandoned the building as may be they felt that there was no personal benefit. But on the part of school education department, they too lost their interest in the building, may be they do not want to shift part of the school in new building as it was away from the original school building.
Due to callous attitude of officers of both the department, the student suffered as they (students) deprived off the comfort of new building. Some people of the locality thought it proper and to made a video to circulate among the society, so that officers of PWD and School Education Department may come out from the deep slumber.
To save their skins the officers of the both departments have come in action. The CEO Kathua has written a letter to concerned Executive Engineer, PWD to know the status of the building. The concerned Executive Engineer asked his AEE to appraise him and so on.
In this case a serious enquiry should be made that in past how many reminders have been sent by the office of CEO Kathua and Headmaster of the said school. It would exhibit the seriousness of the education department. If there have been constant reminders from the CEO Kathua and Headmaster Kanthal then it would be agreed that they were serious about their duties, if they failed to send constant reminders than the senior officers must come in action.
But on the other hand, the PWD department has constructed the building of worth lacs in rupees but later abandoned the reason better known to them. There record must be checked that how many times they have written to officers of School Education Department to take over the building in question, if not then a serious enquiry should be made by crime Branch as the matter is very serious in nature.
The Audit parties who audited both the departments since 2019 should also be taken to task that for ignoring the building in their audit report.
The concerned Executive Engineer told that he had asked his AEE to identify the work so that the department may complete it and then handover the building to the concerned institute. The PWD is showing seriousness after the video became viral but prior to it they were sleeping.
On the directions of CEO Kathua, the concerned ZEO constituted a committee, vide his office No ZEOB/2023-24/1653-55 dated 17-11-2023, comprising three members including ZEOP Mohammed Hussian Parrey, Master Ashok Kumar GHS Bani and Master Shoket Ali Boys MS Bani to enquire into the factual report regarding viral video on social media and also asked them to give specific comments within two days without any fail.
As per the ZEO, the report sought from the committee has been submitted to the office of CEO Kathua for his perusal.
