300 teachers to be recruited for govt schools

A total of 300 teachers will be recruited to government schools in Dakshina Kannada district shortly. This will help to overcome the problem of shortage of teachers in schools, DDPI Walter D’Mellow said.

Speaking at Zilla Panchayat meeting chaired by ZP President Asha Thimmappa Gowda here on Tuesday, he said with recruitment of teachers, schools that have single teachers will get additional staff. Additional teachers in the schools have been redeployed to rural areas.

A total of 103 additional teachers in various schools have been redeployed through a counselling held in the month of April. This includes 33 in Mangaluru South, 22 in Moodbidri, 22 in Puttur and 14 in Bantwal blocks. A few teachers have failed to take up the responsibility of headmasters. Hence, the post of a few headmasters in various schools have remained vacant, the DDPI said.

Utilisation of funds
Member Janardhan Gowda said borewells have been sunk and no electricity connections have been given to supply water in a few villages in the district. In Edapadavu alone, borewells have been sunk without laying pipelines and providing electricity connections.  The drinking water crisis has been acute in some parts due to depletion of groundwater resources and drying up of water bodies. The Task Force funds have been released to address the acute water crisis during summer. Unfortunately, the borewells have been sunk haphazardly. 

ZP Vice President Sathish Kumpala said Zilla Panchayat members are kept in darkness while preparing the work list under Task Force. There is a need to conduct a probe into the utilisation of funds under Task Force and assess the work undertaken.

ZP CEO P I Srividya said as a last option to address the water crisis, borewells have been dug under the Task Force.

There was heated discussion on sustainability works under National Rural Drinking Water Programme (NRDWP). The Assistant Executive Engineer said that there was delay in the release of funds to take up the work. Proposal for the works have been sent to the State government.

Not satisfied with the answer, the ZP members demanded to know the status of the work and also pending bills for payment for the work already initiated.

“In reality, the State government had released already 10 per cent of the total fund of Rs 27 crore under NRDWP. Hence, no funds will be released by the government. The officials have been misguiding the members,” alleged the  members.

Zilla Panchayat President Asha Thimmappa Gowda said the State government has not released any fund to take up emergency drinking water projects during the year.

The members also demanded to know the progress of the work taken up under Rashtriya Madhyamika Shikshana Abhiyana (RMSA). This led to the ruling and opposition members levelling allegations against each other, thus creating utter chaos in the house.

MLC Ivan D’Souza said there is a need to blacklist contractor who has been entrusted with the responsibility of completing the civil works under RMSA.

“District-in-Charge Minister Ramanath Rai will be asked to review the progress of the work immediately. I will also impress upon the State government not to continue the contract of the contractor who has failed to complete the civil works in the district.”
On illegal quarry on 700 acre government land at Thenka Ekkar in Mangaluru taluk, the ZP President said that government land should be handed over to the gram panchayat, so that a herbal garden can be developed for the benefit of Ayush department.