CM announces Rs 467-crore grant to repair classrooms

Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy on Tuesday announced a slew of measures for improving infrastructure in government educational institutions.

Speaking after holding a marathon meeting with ministers and officials concerned here on Tuesday, Kumaraswamy said it was decided to earmark Rs 467 crore for the repair of 21,000 classrooms in primary schools across the state. As many as 7,800 schools face shortage of classrooms. This is in addition to the grants announced in the budget to the primary and secondary education department.

He said the meeting took a decision to allot an additional Rs 102 crore, with grants from Nabard, for improving infrastructure in first grade colleges. The chief minister said
Rs 20 crore will be released for improving the laboratories in engineering colleges.

Kumaraswamy said he has instructed officials of the public works and education departments to prepare a report within a month on places which require footbridges to ensure there is safe connectivity to schools, especially in the Malnad region.

He expressed displeasure that some educational institutions that he had sanctioned during his previous tenure as chief minister (2006-08) still lacked basic infrastructure.

Kumaraswamy said he had directed officials to ensure high-quality bicycles are provided to students. As many as 5.14 lakh bicycles will be provided to students at a cost of
Rs 184 crore this academic year. Medical Education Minister D K Shivakumar, Public Works Minister H D Revanna, Higher Education Minister
G T Devegowda, Primary and Secondary Education Minister N Mahesh were among those present.

Alumni help

Earlier in the day, a press release from the chief minister’s office stated that the government will seek the help of alumni associations to meet the infrastructure cost in schools and colleges.

Replying to a query, Kumaraswamy said several rounds of talks had been held with representatives of nationalised banks to ensure smooth implementation of the crop loan waiver scheme. The bankers have said that loans to the tune of Rs 37,152 crore secured by farmers from nationalised banks can be repayed by the government in four annual instalments.

He said the list of beneficiaries will soon be finalised jointly by the state government and banks.

The state-level bankers’ committee which met in Bengaluru decided to fix Rs 98,655 crore as the total loans to be provided to farmers from various lending institutions for the financial year 2018-19. The panel also decided to constitute a sub-committee comprising government officials and bankers to look into all aspects of crop loan waiver.