Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court on Tuesday, February 24, directed the state government to file an explanation within three weeks on a public interest litigation (PIL) flagging the delay in the construction of toilets at a girls’ school and a junior college in Jogulaba Gadwal district.
The PIL, filed by a law student of Osmania University, highlighted the issue of lack of toilet infrastructure at the Zila Parishad High School in Undavelli and at the Government Junior College in Maldakal of Jogulamba Gadwal district.
The petitioner alleged that the construction works started some years ago but stopped due to non-payment of bills. During his visit to the high school, Nagarkurnool MP Mallu Ravi had promised to secure Rs 1 crore through corporate social responsibility initiatives, but in vain.
HC seeks explanation over irregularities in PM SHRI, Samagra Shiksha
In another PIL, the High Court directed the state government to file counters in a case of alleged misappropriation of funds meant for Pradhan Mantri Schools for Rising India (PM SHRI) and Samagra Shiksha schools for vocational learning.
The PM SHRI was launched in 2022 to provide high-quality, inclusive education, featuring modern infrastructure, technology and green campus initiatives to mentor other schools in their regions.
The Centre had launched Samagra Shiksha, an integrated scheme for school education, in 2018. It is an overarching programme for the school education sector extending from preschool to class 12 and aims to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education at all levels of school education.
The petitioner sought a direction with regard to the violation of the bidding norms followed by School Education Department’s officials.
It alleged that the officials concerned collected huge sums from the bidders and favoured them, which ended the bidding for 2024-25 academic year. It also alleged that though the bids were called for 946 schools in Telangana, the schemes were approved only for 500 schools.
Follow on Twitter | Posted by News Desk | | 
