EDO, DO offices need urgent attention

Rawalpindi : The government of Punjab which is reportedly framing a policy for improvement of education sector should also take notice of the poor condition of buildings of Executive District Office and District Officer Education, Rawalpindi and allocate funds for their maintenance and renovation in the next budget.

According to information gathered by ‘The News’, the building of EDO, Education situated between Liaquat Bagh and Committee Chowk was property of Auqaf Department. It was constructed before the partition of Pakistan and India. Now its condition has been declared dangerous and it could collapse anytime.

According to officials, during the government of Pervaiz Elahi in Punjab, Federal Minister, Sheikh Rasheed was taking serious steps to demolish the building and build Education Complex on this site. However, the authorities raised objection over it at the pretext the land belongs to it. As a result, the plan of building Education Complex had to be dropped. However, during the first rule of Shahbaz Sharif as chief minister, the Punjab government had procured the land from Auqaf Department in order to establish EDO office over there. More than a decade has passed, however, no measures were taken to spend funds on renovation and reconstruction of this building which is being stated to be dangerous.

Similarly, the office of District Education Officer, Rawalpindi is situated in Bagh-e-Sardaran. The office building was constructed in 1989. The strength of staff is 26. The condition of rooms is deplorable. Cracks are developed on walls besides seepage at different sides. It was told that since the establishment of this building 30 years ago, no funds have been allocated for renovation and maintenance work. The offices of both EDO and DO also lack other facilities as well like proper furniture. The government vehicles allotted for official work are old. However, the staff is still managing to run the affairs.

In this connection, when this correspondent approached DO, Education, Shahida Hashmi, she agreed to the fact that the office building and rooms require renovation work. During the previous governments in Punjab, we had been demanding funds for carrying renovation and reconstruction work besides maintenance as well as procuring new furniture. However, no allocations were made for this purpose.

Replying to a query, Shahida Hashmi said they have forwarded demand seeking grant worth Rs2.5 million from the Punjab government for improving the condition of office building, rooms besides meeting other facilities. It is believed that the PTI government in Punjab headed by Chief Minister, Usman Buzdar which is framing new policy for improvement of education sector would provide us grant in the coming Annual budget for maintenance, repair and renovation works of building, she believed.

The EDO as well as DO looks over 1806 government schools of Punjab out of which 1043 are female institutions while the rest are boy schools. The fees of students is just Rs20 per month. According to policies being framed by the present provincial government, each teacher would take class of 22 students only instead of 40 which is at present. Work on the new policy is underway and is likely to come into effect in short future, the DO hoped.